The Great War
by Mr. Stiffly
Summary: While the world in plunged into chaos, a forgotten enemy and a new enemy plot in secret. Every remaining nation is forced to use all of its abilities to stay around. New prologue and slightly revised first chapter.
1. Prologue

The caves of Aqua Road were not a pleasant place by any means. However, these caves held something. Something that he wanted.

A dark figure swam into one of those caves. After countless hours of searching he had finally found the right one. Two beasts in it were quickly slashed apart. Squids were no match for this man. He swam farther, until a huge rock was in his path. However, this was quickly rolled aside. After he entered, the rock rolled back. It slammed against the rock, forming a watertight seal. He was now on dry land.

The huge labyrinth was no match for him, although it was pitch-black. He navigated it quickly and easily, until…

_Yes…this is it._

An object saturated with energy was now in his grasp.

_Finally, I have it._


	2. Infiltration

Gath Enders walked into the military headquarters for WV (Western Victoria). During recent years, the world had been split into multiple different states. Most viewed it as unfortunate, but they were now here. The major ones included El Nath, Orbis, Ludibrium, Western Victoria, and Eastern Victoria. Aqua Road had been a major player a while ago, but a military conflict with El Nath had destroyed that. El Nath was now going after Orbis. Gath held the position of HS, the Head of Scouting. Right now, tension was building between WV and EV, allies of Orbis and El Nath, respectively. This tension would only be heightened by the report Gath had recently received.

It was a suspicious report of Eastern Victorian (EV) activity. He was going to meet with commander-in-chief of WV to discuss it. The Commander-in-Chief, Cody Frazer, had held the position for twenty years, and had given Gath his first promotion and promotion to his current job. Without him, Gath would never have gotten anywhere.

Gath entered Cody's office, taking careful note of the surroundings, as always. He squinted as he entered, his eyes adjusting to the dim candlelight. The office was about thirty by twenty, although the mass of papers lying around made it seem much smaller. The entire room was made of stone, providing additional protection compared to the wooden frame of the rest of the HQ. A wooden desk dominated the room, with many papers and maps lying around it, as well as a quill and jar of ink. Sitting behind it was the CIC, Cody Frazer.

Cody was fifty-six years old, gray haired, and about five feet ten inches tall. His eyes were blue, and darted around the room constantly. The CIC loved competition, and this had helped him gain his position.

Frazer stared at Gath, not speaking, and the room was silent. After what seemed like an eternity, Frazer motioned for Gath to sit down.

"Well, what do you have for me?" Frazer asked.

"A report on the latest EVS movements"

Frazer said nothing, a sign for him to continue.

"They have levied taxes for "military reform" and promoted five more generals. They raised recruitment rates by ten percent. Their armies began drilling heavily recently, and we want to know what this is about. It's your decision whether we ask for an explanation, or send spies in."

"I've come to trust you in these situations. Any ideas on what it could be?" Cody said, a hint of interest in his voice.

"Well, they could simply be reforming their military, like they say they are. With the situation in Orbis and El Nath, they could need extra defense. The trouble with this theory is that they have had good relations with El Nath for a long time. They could be raising an army. The purpose of this army could be for three things. First, it could support Orbis in their skirmishes with El Nath. Secondly, it could be used to crush Orbis. Or, it could be used to attack us. The reasons behind only one of these are reasonable. They might want to attack us, either for an unknown reason or to stop us from helping Orbis. As I said earlier, they are on good terms with El Nath and probably don't want to help Orbis, but it's a possibility. The least sound of these three is attacking Orbis, because they haven't built more airships. I am requesting that you allow me to send in three spies to gain more information" Gath summarized.

"I would have to agree: the most likely is an attack on us. However, we can't go throwing accusations around without fact. Send in the team. I'll inform the proper people to start more military drilling. This is a very disturbing development… thank you for the information." Cody said, expressing less interest than he felt.

"Thank you sir. Here is the report I got this from" Gath said, placing the report on Cody's desk.

He went back to his office, and looked over the profile of possible candidates. The process took three hours, but in the end he identified three people he thought could do this job well. The team leader was Kurt Munro; a thirty year old Chief Bandit Gath had met as a militia member. Munro had advanced quickly, and had led these types of missions often, and was very successful. Backing him up was Lenore Ross, a twenty-five year old Priest, who was to take care of healing duties and messages, and Elliot Jenreau, a twenty-four year old Hermit who would do the principal spying. Munro would lead, and decide what to do with the information Jenreau delivered. Although he had only met Munro personally, the reports of the other two members said they were intelligent and resourceful, and both had experience.

He sent out instructions for them to be sent to his office at nine the following day, and went home to spend the rest of the day running, lifting weights, and practicing his aim at a target range.

The following morning, his body ached from the previous day's workout. However, Gath knew this was a sign of how badly he needed it, and cursed himself for being so lazy. His aim had been terrible, and it would be the most important thing for him to work on in the coming days.

At precisely nine o'clock, the three people he had ordered to come walked in. A hermit dominated the group. This would be Jenreau. Gath found his eyes quickly passing over Elliot, as the hermit's black clothing attracted no interest.

The only female in the group, Lenore Ross, stood at about five foot five. She wore a green robe, trimmed with gold. She wore no hat, and had blond hair that hung down below her shoulders.

The final person in the room was Munro. Gath knew it was, but didn't know exactly _where_ Munro was. A large cloud of shadow surrounded the Chief Bandit, making his precise location impossible to discern.

Gath was the first to speak, breaking the tension in the room that resulted from him studying the three people.

"I suppose you're wondering why I've called you here today" He began.

"EV has begun military buildup. They have promoted multiple new generals, and levied more troops. The reason for this is unknown. Your assignment will be to figure out why this buildup is happening. If possible, a few acts of sabotage to slow the buildup would be helpful"

Munro then spoke, saying "What equipment are we allowed to use?"

"You will be allowed to take specially trained mounts to our border, and then you will have to let them go. We can't risk an enemy knowing you're there. They know how to get back here. You will then continue on foot to the location specified on this map" Gath said, handing a map to Munro.

"Munro will lead the mission. I'll let him choose what to bring. Ross, you will take care of messages and any healing necessary, and Jenreau is the additional spy."

"Where did you get this information from?" Jenreau asked.

"I'm sorry, classified." He received a nod from Jenreau. Everyone in this business was used to that answer.

Munro stepped forward to speak.

"Who's the leader of this army?"

"We've tried to pick an easy target. The fifth battle group of EV is who you're after. The leader is Matthew Travis, a prime target. Only twenty years old, but his father has a lot of political influence, which explains why he's commanding. He's inexperienced enough to be fooled easily"

"Numbers?"

"We estimate around two thousand in this battle group."

"Shouldn't be too hard. We'll start preparing immediately"

Munro then walked out, the two others following close behind. Outside of Gath's office, Munro tried to figure out further details.

"Ross, how fast can you send a message?"

"A few hours. I send a stream of mana, but it takes a lot of effort. The shorter the better:

"How long is the maximum?"

"A few hundred words per day, at best"

"Jenreau, do you know enough to become part of their military?"

"Probably, depends on the requirements"

"Do either of you know how to hunt, or have any experience with fire magic?"

The conversation continued as they walked out, their feet crunching on fresh snow.

As the sun rose on the camp of Battle group 5 of the EV military, Jamison Bradford walked towards the main tent. It was always an interesting experience, although he would get used to it eventually. He didn't like their old commander very much, but didn't mind following his orders. Those, however, had been issued by an experienced general in his fifties, not some twenty-year old put straight into command without any other experience. The unnerving part was that the twenty year old knew _more_ than their last commander, and was better than him.

Matthew Travis was a genius and a great fighter as well. Jamison Bradford had lost to him multiple times in duels. Bradford was a thirty year old colonel, with years of experience a common solider, earning promotions solely because of skill. He was a White Knight, the standard path of most hand-to-hand fighters in the EV military. Travis was a White Knight as well, although rumor had it that he was almost ready to learn the skills of a Paladin. A Paladin at twenty? Such a thing was unheard of!

Jamison cleared the thoughts from his mind, and reminded himself why he was here. Supply lines were knocked out by the heavy snowstorm the night before, and needed to be cleared. He had to get permission to use some hogs and additional manpower to do so.

As Jamison entered the tent, Travis was staring at some papers. He quickly looked up though, as he heard Jamison enter. Travis was a powerfully built man, nearing six and half feet of height. He was wearing a heavy blue coat, with the boar, the EV coat of arms on it. Looking at the weapons lying about, Jamison was reminded of another surprising quality of the young man in front of him. A Dragon Claymore was thrown thoughtlessly into a corner, the silver blade hidden by a small cot. Nearby was another sword, a Sparta, with a golden handle and a blade with a purplish tint. A huge mace, the Dragon Flame, was on top of the cot. It was black, although elegant golden designs covered the entire weapon. Another similar mace, the Dragon Mace, was lying at the side of the desk where Travis was sitting. This one was black and gold as well, designs covering the two ends and gold covering the handle. The side of the mace had the design of a golden dragon's head on it.

The four weapons and the shield were extremely powerful, and could only be wielded by the best. Aspiring White Knights hoped to wield one of these effectively, while Travis could wield all four, both sword and mace, with great skill. The fact that the weapons were scattered carelessly only reminded any visitor of how wealthy the man was.

"Colonel Bradford, what may I help you with today? Perhaps you wish to be beaten in another duel?" Travis said, a small smile on his face.

"Not today sir, although I'm sure I will eventually. I wish to request the use of additional hogs and men to clear the supply lines. Our caravans can't get through this snow, and we only have enough supplies for a few days"

"Take what you need, it's an important job."

"Thank you sir, it shouldn't take to long"

Jamison left, intent on that simple task. Travis remained to puzzle out far more complex things.

As a young boy, Matthew Travis had never dreamed of what would happen to him. He was raised by his father, Steve Travis, a powerful political figure in EV. His father was incredibly wealthy, and made sure Matthew received the best tutors and trainers available. Coupled with the fact that Matthew was extremely intelligent, this allowed him to constantly surpass people older and more experienced than him. He had never cared much for games, being extremely practical in nature. After starting training as a warrior, he advanced far faster than others. He had also become a White Knight sooner than most, and was one of the strongest, because of his mastery of both mace and sword. During this time, he enjoyed studying the tactics of mock battles, or the histories of the early wars against elven necromancers, and trying to come up with solutions to allow the loser to become the victor. This practice surprised and pleased many of the powerful figures, and, along with his combat mastery, got him his position as leader of the fifth battle group. He had held this position for three months now, constantly drilling.

He was uneasy though. There was no need for him to command, or for EV to start military build-up. He knew they could resist El Nath or WV, and it would be impossible to get the people of WV to accept new masters. This left one possibility-El Nath was pressuring the government into doing this. El Nath had a powerful navy with strong ships, taken from the ruins of Aqua Road. This navy was not being used right now. EV, with their weak navy, could be blockaded by El Nath. They lacked food, most had to be imported, and this would starve them. WV wouldn't trade with them, safe behind Hettinger's wall. They had been looking to take all of Victoria Island for decades. Orbis had no resources to spare… Even if EV joined in the fight against El Nath, they would be crippled, and unable to help much. It wouldn't surprise him if WV backstabbed them and went to war. Being forced into a war was a troubling prospect, but one he could do nothing about, for now.

Orbis Tower, a great monument to the goddess Minerva and connecting passage of El Nath and Orbis was under assault. The tower rose twenty miles into the sky, held up by construction and magic. Each 'floor' of the tower was a mile high, and contained elaborate passages throughout. The tower's diameter was over two miles wide.

Assault wasn't necessarily the best term however, because El Nath wanted passage through it, not the destruction of it. They would have used the magic spots, but these had been deactivated by magicians of Orbis. The current commander for El Nath was Jessie Seneca, a thirty-four year old Shadower. El Nath had currently pushed to the tenth floor, although they paid heavily for each. Seneca wasn't sure if they could make it to the top, and that would ruin the entire plan… He needed a solution quickly. His second-in-command, Lance Eckhart, hurried over to him, ducking under a barrage of flaming rocks was sent from above.

Eckhart was about six feet in height, and more powerfully built than the average mage. He wore a blood-red robe, lined in black. The Archmage wore no hat, and his long black hair flew everywhere. His hands were in red gloves, and he wore red boots. This was his way of showing his pyromania. His golden pendant, mounted with a red jewel, hung freely from his neck. This was the mark of participating in a group action to seal Horntail away. He carried a golden staff with a huge head, a fiery orb set in the middle. It set itself apart as the more powerful fire augmentation staff with four golden cylinders coming off the huge, round head.

"Sir, what do you need right now?"

"They have archmages up there. It's a small ledge. Tell me where it's going to break"

Meteors continued to rain down, burning the supplies, soldiers rushing to put out he fires, only to be shot down by more boulders. Seneca wasn't worried for his safety, for he was expending a small amount of mana to be near invisible, and protecting himself with a guard of mesos.

"There's only five. That ledge isn't going down easy. I can send a few Chief Bandits to take it out, but they'll hear the mesos and flee. You're better off leading a party yourself… Sir?"

Lance looked around in surprise; he could no longer see Seneca. He then realized the Shadower was going to kill the archmages himself. He took command of the area, getting the soldiers to take what they could and hide it under stone ledges, protecting it, and then themselves.

Seneca was looking for a side route. This level of Orbis tower was still being fully mapped out, as the army got ready to proceed to the next level. He ducked through a side passage, still using mana to stay invisible. He started walking through it… yes this was the one. His memory had served correctly. It was a half a mile long. He could be there in a few minutes, and kill those damn mages.

Eckhart continued to supervise the camp, but stone ledges and defenses were being knocked out by those meteors. And this was five archmages, just a small portion of what Orbis could use! He remembered why they were here though, and why they needed the tower. The plan was Seneca's, and it would not, could not, fail. It would be the end of him, and the end of a great vision. He was thrown into the air by the impact of a meteor three feet away, the stone under him blasted into the air by the impact. He hit the ground hard, but didn't break anything. He took his own advice, and hid underneath some rubble. The forward base wouldn't last much longer… Where was Seneca?

Seneca continued running hard, still invisible. There, up ahead, a source of light. He wiped sweat from his brow, and stealthily proceeded towards it, no longer running. The mages were all there, ready to be killed. He crept up, silently, unseen.

Eckhart continued staring up at the ledge, waiting for the mages to be removed, for it to be safe to come out. Huge craters were formed on the floor of the tower, and it was threatening to collapse… He then saw it. A new figure appeared on the ledge. He could barely make out the dagger, a handle with a semicircular blade, the Reverse Killic. It slashed the back of one mage three times, and the figure then grabbed the mage, and slit his throat. Meanwhile, physical shadows assaulted the other mages, and as they fought them off, the barrage stopped.

Seneca saw one mage fall from his shadow ninjas, the others were blown away by infernos of fire. He moved with extreme speed, slashing one of the mages with a deadly poison. The mage, tried to gather energy to blast at Seneca, but the poison froze his ability to use mana, and would kill him quickly unless treated. As an added bonus, it sapped his enemy's strength, and would remove him from the fight. It was worth every bit of the ten million meso cost. One mage shot a poisonous substance at him, the other a blast of electricity, attempting to paralyze him. He easily dodged both, dancing around the projectiles. He fell to the ground and rolled as another ray was shot, and he threw his dagger at the same time. The weapon hit the archmage in the face, going deep into his skull. There was only one left now.

Eckhart continued watching, but his satisfaction turned to horror. The mage gathered energy and blasted it outward, knocking Seneca upward into a wall. The mage then hit him with a ray of electricity, paralyzing him. However, as the mage gathered energy to finish the job, he was killed by a dagger, the one Eckhart recognized as Seneca's. The mage looked on in horror at the blade protruding from his stomach; realizing Seneca was using an extremely advanced tactic-creating a shadow version of himself that looked exactly the same, while he retrieved his dagger and killed him.

Seneca smiled, and proceeded back to the camp. He now knew to post guards up there, and the camp wouldn't take long to fix up.

"Come on Orbis" He thought "You'll need to do better than that to drive us away."

As he reached the camp, he looked at Eckhart and smiled, seeing the man's disbelief.

The air was cool, but not too cold, not humid, and there was fresh snow. This combination was one Jenreau enjoyed, and he would have been out walking if it wasn't for the preparation underway. From what he had heard, Munro was a tough, but excellent leader. He expected a lot from the other members, and got them to do what he wanted all of the time. The packing was a long ritual in itself, as they would be away from civilization for months. Sure, they would be near an army camp, but you couldn't necessarily call that civilized. They needed to be prepared for every contingency, just in case.

Munro was looking carefully through the saddlebags, making sure everything was there. Food, rope, grappling hooks, bedrolls, water, flint, steel and axes needed to start fires, and lanterns were only the beginning of the items on the list. Each person would end up carrying around fifty pounds worth of material, if you didn't count food or water. Water was an especially big problem, as it was so heavy and so important for survival. Thankfully, Ross had some basic ability with fire magic, and would be able to melt snow during the initial stages of their journey.

After checking all the equipment for a third time, Munro motioned for the other two to mount their hogs. The hogs were standard beasts of burden, fast and strong. As they started off in silence, Munro cast a long glance back at the city of Henesys, from which they left. He was getting to old for this. He had a son now, a two year old boy, and his wife was pregnant with another child… He could no longer afford to put his life in jeopardy. He had considered not leading this mission, until Gath had specifically asked him to. It could be vital to the existence of WV, and it was for an old friend. One more time, and then he would stop for good.

Jenreau wasn't too sure about the mission in general. He had spied on enemies before, but never needed to actually pretend to be a member of an enemy army. He had read up on habits of the EV army, but still was uneasy. He reached into his belt, double checking again, making sure all of his stars were there. Ten ilbis, five steelies. Perfect, as normal. The belt was a special design. It allowed thousands of stars to fit into one pocket, yet had none of the mass or weight that this would truly have. Instead, it felt as if there was one star there, and when he reached in, he could grab however many he wanted.

Ross was the only one who didn't seem nervous. Lenore was the least experienced of the three, having only gone on two of these journeys before. Still, she had performed excellently on those two. Ross was an unusual priestess, because of how much dabbling she did. Most priests stick to holy magic, and it is incredibly difficult to learn a new discipline after learning one. The only reason other mages could do this was because of the many similarities between some disciplines, such as ice and lightning magic. Holy magic, however, had little in common with any other type. Still, Ross knew how to use other types in basic ways, another reason why she was here.

The party continued on their hogs for several days, before finally reaching Hettinger's wall. Hettinger's wall was a huge structure, built many years ago. It wasn't one structure, but a group of walls spanning the distances between rocky cliffs that couldn't be scaled. It was made during a time of turmoil between EV and WV. The entire wall stretched from the beaches southeast of Henesys to the Northwestern side of Kerning. Dotted along it were several gates, allowing passage through, and fortifications every three miles. The wall had been built out of wood, although a ten foot battlement was at the top for the entire distance. Water was stocked constantly to combat the threat of fire, and sections had to be rebuilt because of such issues. There had been talk of replacing the wooden wall with stone, but such a project would need a new supply of stone and trillions of mesos. For now, it was fine as it was an almost impassable barrier. It had, in fact, been described as being made to be a line dividing EV and WV, like the line someone would make in a room shared by children, to split it into two sections, and stop the two sides from conflicting. The wall rose nearly fifty feet into the air, and was truly an amazing structure.

Munro led the way towards the great wooden structure, and they quickly reached a gatehouse in the wall. The gate was ten feet tall, a small feature in such a structure. Munro showed identification as a military operation, and the gatekeeper allowed them to pass. Before leaving, the three of them repacked all the supplies from the saddlebags into packs that they would carry. They then left the hogs, which would return home without their guidance. The wall section they reached wasn't very long for Hettinger's wall, eight-hundred feet between two rock faces. They walked through the gate, and began their journey to gather information.

After an hour of walking in silence, Jenreau broke the silence, which had become a sort of custom so far.

"So… what are your opinions on this entire issue?"

"Well, EV can't be planning to help Orbis with military buildup, and they can't plan to just use it for defense" Ross answered

"Well, where would they attack then?"

"Attack us, you mean?"

"Yes, as that seems to be the only logical conclusion"

"I think they would do it with ships. They can't expect to get through Hettinger's wall, but their navy, supported by El Nath's, could easily defeat ours. They could bypass the wall altogether, and reach the cities."

"True… Is there some way to disrupt them using mana?"

"Disrupt them? How?"

"Oh, I don't know… say you use mana to create a storm. Is that possible?"

"Possible? Definitely. It just a combination of the wind and water properties of mana. It would require an enormous amount though, and couldn't be done"

"What about… just water properties. A whirlpool?"

"One could try it, but as I said, it's just too much mana."

"Is there any way to get enough mana?"

"Not that I know of."

"Oh. I guess we could be in a lot of trouble if they do that then…"

"Exactly my point. They could land and have a huge army here before we knew what hit us. That's why this mission is so important."

Jenreau didn't say anything after that, left to consider the weight of the job placed upon them.

Gath walked back out to the practice range, ready to snipe some more targets. He had now been going for two hours every day, for over a week. His skills had come back, but he still had to refine them. However, he changed his mind about practicing when he saw an old friend. Archie Lamont was a sniper that Gath had known since childhood. The two had trained together often during their youth, but Gath hadn't seen him for years.

"Archie! What are you doing here?" He called

"I was actually going to snipe a few targets." Archie said as he came over. "Now that I see you're here, how about a duel?"

Gath looked at Archie for a few moments, trying to think of how good he would be by now. He was wearing a Blue Azurna robe, which was the next step up from Gath's Red Ades. The two were near the same height, although Lamont was slightly taller at six feet. Lamont wore a Blue Arnah cap, something that Gath never understood. He didn't like wearing a hat while sniping, and his head was uncovered. Their hair contrasted as well, Archie's a short black while Gath's was long and blond. Gath's Red Focus glove, he had to admit, looked pitiful compared to the Blue Arcina of the sniper. Gath wielded a Blue Metus as his bow of choice, while Archie carried a Golden Neschere.

"Alright, that sounds good to me" Gath said "Let's give it a go.

The dueling arena was a great innovation, but fairly pricey. If they wanted a 'free' duel, then practice weapons had to be used. The dueling arena here though, was built on the principal of bishops healing abilities. It was possible for bishops to resurrect a dead person if they reached the body quickly enough. Therefore, some people had reasoned that it must be possible to create an arena where you fight to the death, and are healed and resurrected. The idea had worked, and was now the dueling arena.

After paying a large fee, the two of them went to separate corners. This arena was a flat area, snow still covering the ground. Each of the two reached for their weapon, and as they drew it, the fight began. It was silent during the fight, spectators entranced by what was going on, and the two men looking for an opening, the duel too intense for the causal banter that took place in some.

Gath knew that Archie was stronger than him, and needed to rely on his speed to win. Sticking with his plan, he didn't attack at the start, allowing the stream of arrows from Archie's Neschere to bury them in the ground, as he rolled away. Coming out of his roll, he sent an arrow bomb at the sniper, and pulled mana from around him to fire a second, extremely powerful arrow after it. Lamont placed a puppet in the way, and the explosion destroyed it, clearing the way for the second arrow. However, Archie was well out of the way by the time it reached there, and another round of arrows was headed towards Gath.

These were easily dodged as well, and while Gath was studying Archie, looking for his next move, he was attacked by an eagle. The bird dive bombed him, the force knocking him to the ground. He knew it was Archie's bird, and rolled out of the way as four more arrows came in. He started to run backwards, away from Archie, while sending arrows at the eagle. None of these managed to hit though, as the eagle dive bombed him again. This time, however, he was ready. He pulled mana together, and as the eagle came close, he launched a single powerful arrow, killing it. Unfortunately, he had forgotten all about Archie, and was reminded painfully when two arrows sank into his back. He quickly summoned a puppet, which took another four arrows for him.

Lamont didn't let up though. He moved quickly, and sent an arrow imbued with ice. It exploded above Gath before he could get out of the way, and he was frozen to the ground. Finally, Archie finished the job, sending eight arrows in four shot bursts into Gath. Gath grunted in pain and slumped to the ground, hoping he would be resurrected soon.

It turned out he was, and was quickly healed by a team of clerics. After that, he walked over to meet Archie.

"Hey, good job. Since when could you summon an eagle?"

"Learned how to recently. Pretty nice, eh?"

"Yeah, got me. We should do this again some time. Say, next month?"

"Sounds good to me. What are you doing now anyway?"

"I'm working for the military. You?"

"I've been hunting some monsters to make my living. Quite a lot of money in it"

"I lost interest in that a long time ago"

"You know, you'll never become a Bowmaster at this rate. You should come with me sometime"

"Really? I haven't done that in years. I could give it a shot though."

"Sounds good. I'll have to talk to you later; I'm supposed to meet someone soon"

"Alright, see you later"

Archie left, leaving Gath to walk back to the targets, and begin to practice some more.

Munro's party had been travelling on foot for nearly two weeks at this point, and they had entered the woods near the camp of battle group five. Munro was going over the instructions for Jenreau one more time, just to make sure he knew what to do when he got in.

"Alright, make sure you do exactly what we said. Act as a desperate man wanting to join this army out of a sense of patriotism. Mention nothing about attacking WV. Your parents and grandparents were all insignificant; you want to make a difference. You want to be known."

"Right. How do I tell you if I'm successful?"

"Sneak out. Your excuse is for the latrines. You're new, understandable that you could forget the way. Sneak over this way, and meet us. We'll figure out a new way later."

"That's all?"

"That's all."

"Alright"

Jenreau started heading towards the camp, nervous of the upcoming plan. It was only a few hundred feet away. As he neared the camp, he saw a few guards, who started to head towards him, but ignores them. The camp was little more than clusters of tents, all colored blue, the color of EV. Jenreau was stopped near a hundred feet away by one of these guards. The guard was a fairly weak warrior, armed with a Lion's Fang sword. He stood in Jenreau's way, and asked

"No one's supposed to be away from the camp right now. What are you doing?"

"W-W-Well…I'm a-um... looking to join this army. Please s-s-sir, my parents… you see they were nothing an-and I want to… you know, be something important."

He did his best to act nervous as he spoke, and it seemed to work on the guard.

"Alright, I can't make that decision. I'll have to send you to the commander. Come along."

"Really? Thank you!"

Jenreau quickly followed, changing his demeanor from nervous to excited. He was taken inside the camp. As he did, he was given many stares by the men and women inside of it. He glanced around, trying to estimate how many people were here. He guessed there were around twenty-five hundred total. Inside the large tent, he saw a young man of about twenty years.

_So this is Matthew Travis… Let's see what he's like_

"Hello there. State your business" Travis said. He had a booming voice that filled the entire tent.

"Well sir… I was interested in joining up with this army. You see… my parents were nobodies, and I want to be somebody important."

"You expect me to simply accept some random man walking by? You're most likely a spy."

"N-No sir, really! How can I prove it?"

"I'm not sure. How could you prove it? I'm open to suggestions"

Jenreau thought about this for a while, but couldn't come up with anything. He decided to continue his act.

"Sorry sir… I-I can't think of anything"

"Well then, you're in. A real spy would have had an excuse prepared. You seem fine to me."

"Thank you! Where should I go?"

Travis turned towards the guard

"Lead him over to Colonel Bradford, will you? I think he needs some more stealth."

"Alright sir"

The guard exited the room, and Jenreau followed him. So far, so good.

Bradford's section was on the eastern end of the camp. The guard led Jenreau into Bradford's tent, and then went back to his post. Bradford was a powerful looking White Knight, although he was only about five foot ten, small for a warrior. He wasn't wearing any armor at the moment, just a blue jacket and heavy pants, made for the cold weather. Sitting close to him was his weapon, a Leomite, a mace with the head in the shape of a lion's head.

"So, I hear you're new around here. I'll introduce myself first, I'm Jamison Bradford. You are?"

"I'm Nicholas West."

"Alright then Mr. West, you'll have to share a tent with Donald Roe and George Pare. You'll find them right outside of here, on your left."

"Alright thank you. Nice to meet you."

Jenreau, known here as Nicholas West, headed over towards the tent Bradford specified. He pushed the blue flap back, and walked into it.

"Hello there" One of the men said. "Who are you? Haven't seen you around before."

"Oh, I'm Nicholas West. Just joined up today. You are?"

"Donald Roe, He's George Pare" Donald said, pointing over to the other man as he did so.

Donald was a White Knight, specializing in swords. This was shown by the Blue Screamer on the ground next to him. Pare seemed to be a magic user of some sort, a Magicodar on his cot. Both men were dressed the same way as Bradford, so Jenreau assumed it was a standard uniform. A third cot was in the tent, unused, and Jenreau knew this would be his. He started to get comfortable in his surroundings, as they would be his home for the coming months.

Roy Andrews was staring down at the piece of paper in front of him, very upset. It was an order for all military forces to step up training and "be ready for a conflict" The Dark Knight was mad because it required him to prepare his command of fifty for a completely unknown enemy. Needless to say, this would be a difficult task. He was one of the colonels in the third division of WV forces. Four years ago, when he was twenty-eight, he had completed the fourth job advancement. He had taken down Zakum by himself as a way to prove his worth, yet this would be harder. He slammed his fist down on the table after re-reading it for the fifth time, and then left the room. It was time to get to work.

The third division was stationed at a long part of Hettinger's wall, and it was their job to protect it. Currently, they were working on rebuilding a few sections that had been destroyed by rot, and clearing the trees in front to make defense easier. Now, added to those duties, they had to drill for two hours a day, practicing defense. Andrews was in the HQ of the division, talking to the other commanders.

Many of the commanders wanted to demand more information, but some thought they would learn it when necessary, and being told would increase the chance of information leaks. The argument went back and forth, and Roy exited soon, bored by the pointless talking. Nothing would be done anyway.

He grabbed his Dragon Faltizan, a souvenir from Zakum, and walked out of the gates, and past the crews cutting down trees. He wished to be alone, away, and be able to fight something. Fighting always calmed him, for some strange reason. His plan was to head to the Dungeon in the middle of Victoria Island, and kill a few monsters there. Once he was clear of the wall, and had enough free space around him, he activated a scroll that would teleport him to Sleepywood. The scrolls only worked if there was about ten feet of free space all around, something he wouldn't find in the camp.

Andrews appeared in Sleepywood, a large town at the entrance to the Dungeon. He walked in, passing by crowds of younger, weaker adventurers training on the monsters in it. The stronger beasts, Wild Kargos, Tauromacis and Taurospears were no match for him either. He spent a while slaughtering them, feeling a strange calm while doing so. However, they were not why he was here. Once he was warmed up, he headed to the center of the Dungeon. Balrogs populated this area. They might be a challenge.

As if on schedule, one jumped out and attacked. The battlefield was a cleared area in the Dungeon. It would have been pitch black, but Roy's Faltizan glowed in darkness, if he wanted it to. The illumination was not great, but he could still see well enough to fight.

Andres rushed at the Balrog, which was approaching on the right. As he neared it, he jumped into the air. The impact of his attack caused the rog to slam into the ground, Andrews on top. Andrews was heavy, heavily armored, and moving quickly, and the rog couldn't resist. As it landed, he tried to stab down. However, something very surprising happened then. The rog melted away into the darkness, the spear point slamming into the ground. Roy looked around bewildered… and sensed it too late. A powerful fist slammed into him, and sent him flying.

At this point, Andrews was reminded of just how hard solid rock is. His body crashed into the cave's wall with enough force to make cracks in the rock, and it wasn't surprising that he dropped his spear in the process. However, he had no time to recover, and the Balrog attacked again. This time, it sent meteors at Andrews, who was lying prone after hitting the wall. He quickly scrambled to his feet and dived out of the way, grateful for quick reflexes. The flaming boulders slammed the rock face where he had been moments ago, shattering upon impact.

Roy got to his feet again, only to be hit by another assault. The rog formed a projectile of pure mana, and sent it hurtling towards him. The ball of energy pounded into him, and he was sent flying for the second time. Thankfully, he didn't hit the wall as hard this time. He rolled out of the way of another ball of mana, and as he did so, he felt what he had been looking for: his spear. The Balrog charged him now, but he remained calm.

"Guess what I found?" He said, as the rog approached. When it was a few feet away, its fist ready to attack, he made his move. Combining the energy of his spear with his own, he roared, a wall of sound and force slamming the rog. The cave walls started to crack from the force of it, and he was already on the move.

The Balrog slammed into a wall, Roy following. The Golden Faltizan slammed straight throw the balrog and into the wall, killing the rog instantly, and holding its body a few feet above the ground. Andrews took the spear out, letting the body fall. He used a scroll to return to his camp, not wanting to stay there. Something had increased that balrog's power…something that wasn't there before…

At Gath's office in WV, things were moving along nicely. All of the military units had been alerted, and were starting to step up training. Even better was the report he had received. It was a short message, but important all the same.

_Gath, Jenreau has been inserted. We are monitoring their camp. Will figure out plans soon._

_-Munro_

It sounded like things were starting to work. EV had made the first move, and now WV had responded. He would now have to wait patiently, and see what happened next.


	3. Politics and the Paladin

A/N: Thank you Xemik665. Without your review, this chapter would not be here today. There's an explanation behind the long time it took to update. It took this long because my computer was not working, and thus, I had to wait a few months to get a new one. Needless to say, it is difficult to work on a story when you can't access anything you wrote about it. Thanks again to Xemik for the awesome review. You had a ton of good advice, and I believe your question about West will be answered.

Thanks to musicalbox for the help as well.

* * *

Matthew Travis walked through his camp. It was a clear, bright morning. This would be the last morning he walked through here for a while. After hours of dueling and training, he decided he was ready for the fourth job advancement. That, however, was not his only excuse for leaving.

Although he was out in the middle of nowhere, he had contacts in the senate, contacts that weren't there just because of his father. He was a senator, after all, although he couldn't participate in debates and such out here, only vote.

He had some political experience before, joining in the debates at the age of seventeen, after he had pulled out a victory in his hometown of Lewinsberg. The town was in the region of Ellina, and was named after the founder Olivia Lewin, a great archmage. However, since he had joined the senate, he had gained a reputation for not just being another senator. In most people's minds, he was _the _senator to watch. His victory had been a landslide, and he had quickly participating far more than most others.

What interested people the most were his views. His father had been a strong player on the conservative side of things for his entire career. Matthew was a liberal though, and held some very radical beliefs. There was some speculation that his influence and beliefs had something to do with his new post. Just as things were getting heated in Orbis and when important decisions would be made in the near future, he was sent away.

However, although he was gone, his contacts kept him updated and they continued working on their plan. This was an important plan, and in Matthew and his friends' views, it would be the only way to save the Eastern Victoria State. Just as he was ready for his fourth job advancement, they were ready now. The finishing touches had been completed; his allies had gotten the money they needed. It would cost the liberal side a fortune, but they had the assets available to push just about any motion that they wanted through the senate, with extensive use of bribery and blackmail.

Their long term goal was to end their long alliance with El Nath. However, there were a few problems with this idea of though, namely that they couldn't break their alliance with El Nath. It would be suicide to do so openly and without preparation. So, the plan had been made, one which Travis was a key part of. The trick here was to end their alliance with El Nath, while remaining powerful enough to stick around. The plan would accomplish this task, through great use of diplomacy and secrecy.

When he reached Bradford's tent, he waited for a minute, and the colonel came out. They had planned this meeting the night before. It was only six in the morning, so the camp was still quiet.

"Jamison, my friend, how are things?" Travis asked

"Not bad…so why am I here?" He seemed eager to get to the point. Bradford still wasn't used to taking orders from someone younger than him. He had to keep reminding himself that this was Matthew Travis, one of the best ever.

"Walk with me. I have a few pressing concerns in areas beyond our nice little camp, which I must attend to."

"Oh? And may I ask what these are?" Jamison was genuinely interested now. He had never heard Travis talk about anything that went on outside of camp.

"You may ask anything, although that does not guarantee an answer. No, I think I will keep these secret, for the moment. However, they still do affect you. You see, I have decided to put you in command during my absence. You have proven yourself to be worthy of such an honor." Travis sounded like these 'pressing concerns' were of great importance.

"Me…in command?" Bradford shot a questioning look at Travis. He had never assumed command of more than three-hundred others before.

"Yes. I need someone strong, who can get people to do things to lead, not someone who will be run over by the mountain of work. I have full confidence in your ability to lead, and now you will be rewarded for the great work you have done as a colonel"

"I guess I can give it a try, but what exactly will I do?"

"Exactly as I do, of course. Lead the drills, sign papers, all the normal things. However, there is one more thing…a special request." As he said this, Travis looked around to make sure nobody was within earshot. It would certainly be something important.

"Oh? And this would be?" Bradford was surprised at the request. Wasn't leading the whole battle group a hard enough task?

"Befriend Nicholas West." Travis said it quickly and calmly, as if he was asking for a small favor, one of little importance.

"Excuse me? Become friends with a soldier? Why?" This was one of the strangest things a commanding officer had ever told him to do. Most of them realized that the chemistry of their men was not an issue, as long as they were willing to work well together when they needed to.

"Because Mr. West is not your average soldier, he's a spy." From his tone, it was clear that Matthew thought this was obvious.

"That's a serious accusation. I know you're still new to this, but just because there is someone who wants to join that doesn't do it the normal way…well it doesn't mean they're a spy. We've had a few such people throughout the history of this camp." All the tension Bradford had felt upon hearing about a special task went away. It was just a new commander jumping the gun.

"Oh, not every person like this is a spy. West, however, is."

"And how do you know this?" Jamison said it with a smile on his face, relieved, and perfectly happy to humor his commander.

"Oh, come on Jamison, you don't mean to say you didn't notice it?" Matthew was surprised. He had expected the Jamison, his best colonel, would have noticed the same thing he did.

"Notice what?"

"When he came into the camp, he was well-fed and rested. He has a grand total of fifteen sets of stars on his belt, and is quite clearly far wealthier than he would have us believe. He has already completed his third job advancement, and can hardly be afraid of others thinking he's worthless or a nobody. Finally, if you had observed closely enough, you would have noticed that he was clearly acting nervous. He was far too confident to be the type of person he described." Travis had thought this had been obvious, and others would have come to the same conclusion as he did.

Jamison looked at him for a few seconds.

"So, you think he's a spy?" Suddenly, he was nervous again. He had told himself it was a rookie mistake, but this was Matthew Travis. As far as Jamison knew, Travis had never made a mistake.

"No, I know he's a spy." He sounded disappointed and annoyed that Bradford still didn't get the point.

"Alright then…why did you let him in?" Bradford was interested in learning more about the thinking behind this decision.

"You may be a good colonel, but you have a lot to learn before you become a commander-or a full time one at least." Jamison scowled as the younger man talked to him like he knew more…but then again, Travis _did_ know more. "I let him in because he provides us with a direct link to WV. Although some would prefer to kill spies in the worst ways possible, this is a terrible waste of a valuable resource. The only thing worse than having a spy in your camp is to have your spies feed you false information. You need to get close to West, get him to trust you. At that point, we can feed false information to him. You get to play the part of a colonel giving up secret information to a good friend. If he buys it, he becomes a great asset. If he doesn't, then we'll kill him."

"You amaze me again. However, how can I befriend him when I have to be a commander?" Jamison saw the wisdom behind this move, and cursed himself for not thinking about it. Travis was a great commander.

"You do not need to come to him, he will come to you. After all, you lead his unit, and by making you commander in my absence, it will show that I trust you more than anyone else. He'd be an idiot not to go to you. Just play your part, don't give anything away yet, and things will work out. We can talk again on my return."

"Yes sir. Will your journey be long?" As they had finished with serious matters, Jamison started to sound a lot more conversational, and more laid-back.

"That depends on a few things. How receptive the senate is to my ideas, and how good of a host our dear master, Dances With Balrog, is." Matthew said it calmly, as if there was no great meaning to those words. However, to Bradford, there was.

As Travis walked away, a smile on his face, Jamison froze in place for a few seconds. Then, he ran after him.

"You mean to say that you're completing the fourth job advancement?" He was amazed. He had heard rumors and expected Travis to try at some point, but had not expected it to happen this soon.

"I did not say anything of the sort. I said I was visiting our master. Now then, can you go and get a hog ready? I will be out of my tent and ready to go in a few minutes. Oh, and if you have any problems…contact Eric Reif. He's a friend of mine in the senate." Matthew tried to play down the importance of his departure, although it would be the most important thing he had done in his life.

Jamison nodded and went to comply with his orders. Five minutes later, he was watching his general leave on a large hog, the Dragon Flame mace, his favorite weapon, at his side. As Travis looked back at the camp once more, he hoped he could trust Bradford. He had to befriend a spy, a difficult task, all while dealing with additional responsibilities. He knew Bradford would be fine doing just that…but there were a few more surprises in store for the colonel. Surprises that had something to do with the plan.

* * *

"Well Gath, I'm glad we've finally got you training again" The sniper Archie Lamont said, right before four arrows went flying from his golden crossbow and buried themselves in an Elder Wraith.

Gath smiled. "I'm happy too." In the few days he had been training, he had improved greatly. He still wasn't at the same form he had been years ago, but it felt good to shake the rust off. He let loose his own spread of arrows at the wraith, and it vanished, losing the energy that tied it to this world.

The two archers were in Crimsonwood Forest. It was huge, and located just outside of New Leaf City. The forest got its name from the large crimson trees that appeared there amongst the others. It was considered a dangerous place to go. Inside the dark forest, there were all kinds of deadly beasts. There were thousands of Elder Wraiths inside the forest; one touch from them would kill most people. Even worse were two other monsters that lived in the forest.

The first one was the Headless Horseman. There were many guesses about the origin of it, but nobody knew for sure where it came from. It seemed like a normal human riding a horse, but it had no head. Instead, magical fire in the shape of a face was where its head would be.

The second, deadlier one was Bigfoot. Nobody knew the origins of these beasts. They were normally talked about as one monster, but it was clear that there were multiple creatures like this. They were huge giants, between fifteen to twenty feet in height. These creatures were territorial, and would kill anybody passing nearby. Even worse, the tiny evil spirits, leprechauns, often controlled them and made them go outside of their territory to kill travelers.

Crimsonwood Forest was an interesting location in and of itself, but it was not the sole attraction. The real reason most people decided to visit the forest was to reach Crimsonwood Mountain. It was an imposing landmark. The mountain rose out of the forest, climbing higher and higher until it vanished into the clouds above. For years it was considered a mystery, as no one had climbed it. About fifty years ago, that all changed.

Justin Swartz was a great adventurer. He was one of the best around. What the Hero enjoyed doing most of all was to go to new places and find new treasures. He had been the first one to ascend all the way up Crimsonwood Mountain, finally reaching the top. After years of exploring the forest and mountain, Justin retired, and published all of his findings in a book: _The Hidden Wonders of Crimsonwood_. Inside of this book, he wrote tons of information about the area. It fully detailed, among other things, the monsters that lived there and how best to fight them; a full story of his travels; all of the stories about the origins of the ghosts and monsters; and most importantly, instructions on how to travel through the forest and reach the mountain, and then how to climb the mountain.

Years later, another group of travelers used these to further map out the area of Crimsonwood and make it easier to travel through the region. They set up a group of towers able to teleport up the mountain, so climbing it was now an easy task. These were accessible to everyone. If you could get through the forest, you could climb the mountain. However, the teleporters were spread out, so you still had to climb a good deal. Also, you would have to climb normally to reach any loacation between teleporters.

The one thing that dominated every story about Crimsonwood was the keep at the top of the mountain, Crimsonwood Keep. It was discovered by Swartz during his travels, and the huge structure was still being explored. Hundreds of secret passageways ran through the keep, and teleportation spots inside of it led to everywhere imaginable. No one knew the exact purpose of the keep, but one idea was usually accepted. This was that the keep was made by the humans during the days of the evil elf lord, his name lost to time.

Many things about the keep suggested this theory. It had strong defenses, huge stone walls and large battlements. Inside the keep, there was space to store food for years, and huge tanks, now empty, presumably for storing water. The teleportation spots would allow those inside the keep to leave to hundreds of different locations, where they could fight their enemy. The one thing no one had found yet was how to use these places to teleport back into the keep; all the travelers who used them had to scale the mountain again.

Gath and Archie were heading towards the mountain today, not to climb it, but to train. Windraiders were common on the mountain. It was unknown what exactly they were or why they were there, but these monsters tried to stop anyone from scaling the mountain. In his book, Justin Swartz had described them.

"_The Windraiders were one of many enemies I encountered. They are similar in size to humans, and their skin ranges from blue to purple. They wear blue cloaks, magically enchanted to protect against damage. In this respect, their robes are similar to those that a mage would wear today, although it is unclear how this protection is bestowed on the robes. After examining some, it is clear that the magic works in a different way than what we use now. Their hair color is always white, although length varies. The most common length is quite long, normally reaching their shoulders. It is unclear how they reproduce, whether through magical or conventional means. Each windraider is armed with a sword, magically enchanted, but again in a way I am not familiar with. Each has a mask covering half of its face, colored a lighter purple with red markings on it. It seems that these markings carry some kind of protection; I am not able to hurt them behind their mask. Finally, every windraider has two pink/purple orbs orbiting it. These provide more protection against attacks, and they also use them to magically augment their attacks. I would like to find out more, but the orbs cannot be taken away while they are alive, and disappear when the windraider is killed."_

Their travel through the forest had been fairly uneventful, a few elder wraiths the strongest enemies they encountered. The two reached the foot of the mountain, and began to climb.

"So, tell me more about this job you do" Archie said. He had not asked questions about it earlier, but seemed interested now.

"Well, most of it is a secret, but it mainly has to do with spying, and there are some psychological aspects." Gath was not eager to divulge too much information, even to an old friend. There were enemies everywhere, even if he couldn't see them.

"Oh? Big time secret military stuff?" Archie said with a smile.

"Yeah, most of it."

"Well, that stuff never interested me. You know what does interest me though? Powerful and deadly monsters. There's nothing like the thrill of the hunt. Standing above an enemy, knowing that there are few others who can kill it, knowing you just did with nothing but your skill….it's amazing." Archie had a strange glint in his eyes; it was obvious he loved nothing more. "Besides, that picks up the chicks. Never got a girl saying you couldn't talk about your job, did you?"

Gath chuckled at the remark. "No, I guess not. How is that one you were dating when I last saw you…Kelsey?"

"I wouldn't know, haven't seen her in a while. You know how it goes, she wants me to stop risking my neck all the time, I have to spend more time with her…all the same stuff. I kind of miss her though. I mean _damn_ she was good in bed."

Gath started laughing. "Is that still all you care about? Killing monsters and sex? You haven't changed a bit."

"Nor do I want to. I love the way things are going now. Hey…come here" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Look, there are a bunch of them over there…" He pointed to his left.

Gath looked and saw a fairly flat area of the mountain crawling with windraiders.

"Well…let's go." Archie said, and he then moved along the mountain towards them, not making a sound. Gath followed him just as stealthily.

Once they were within striking distance, fifteen-hundred feet away, Archie motioned for Gath to stop.

"Alright, you remember how this works, right? Launch a spread of arrows towards them; they'll start to charge towards us. Then, pick 'em off."

"Of course I do. I haven't been gone that long"

Archie nodded. In unison, the two archers drew back their bowstrings. Four spectral arrows appeared in both of their bows, and then went flying towards the windraiders. Even before the arrows reached them, more shafts came raining from their bows. The windraiders were caught in the crossfire, but there were around fifty of them. Their numbers kept them alive as the whole group came charging towards the archers.

"All right then, these guys know how to play." Archie said. "Let's see how they do frozen solid."

Huge spikes of ice came flying from his bow, slamming into the ground and knocking up chunks of earth, leaving small craters where they hit. The orbs of the windraiders protected them from most of the ice, but if it so much as touched one, they couldn't move. Gath followed Archie's tactic with his own, firing three arrows in a spread towards his enemies. They exploded, creating a smokescreen, and killing more of the windraiders. As they continued firing a steady stream of arrows, the number of windraiders dropped.

When they were around fifty yards away, there were but six left. Archie and Gath turned to each other and nodded, ready to use an old tactic they had perfected long ago. Gath fired six more bomb arrows into the ground, creating a smokescreen. They couldn't see, but each knew how long it would take for the windraiders to reach them.

Just as the first one entered the smokescreen, the used their attacks. Gath fired a sole arrow into the air, which burst into hundreds of shafts, falling towards the windraiders. At the same moment, Archie let an arrow fly down the earth, going deep into the ground. Almost immediately, it too split into hundreds of arrows, heading straight up.

The devastating crossfire killed their enemies outright, leaving none alive. The archers themselves were protected from their own spread of arrows, and used mana to stop the arrows from hitting their partner. When the smoke cleared, the two looked at each other, both smiling.

"Well…" Gath said "That was fun"

Archie nodded. "Yeah, good job"

The two slowly started to search the windraiders bodies, taking anything valuable.

* * *

Matthew Travis silently rode his hog through Ellina. The journey from the fifth battle groups camp had taken three days, but he was here now. The Eastern Victorian State was divided into three separate regions, Ellina, Perion, and Natuica. Each region had the same name as the capital city of the region, and Ellina was also the capital of the entire nation.

Ellina was one of Travis' favorite places to visit. Huge, ancient trees dominated the landscape, the city being built into and around these trees. Most common houses were built into the trees themselves, with a hole for an entrance, and a door attached. The richer members of the community had access to slightly nicer homes, on platforms hanging off of trees. Every tree was surrounded by a circular walkway, with a railing, and walkways led in every way imaginable, leading to other trees. Most of the large buildings, such as the schools, were located on the forest floor. In EV, the schools were optional and paid for by those attending, as most people chose to work on the arts of mana more than the pursuits of math and science. However, recently the schools had become a lot cheaper because of government intervention. After all, it was worth the government helping to pay for them. Without people becoming experts intellectually instead of with mana, they would have had a lot of trouble building some things, like the great airships. The largest building was up amongst the trees though. The Eastern Victorian Government Center was where all important decisions were made. It was held up by huge chains attached to forty separate trees, and mana helped to support it.

However, his destination, for today at least, was not the government center. It was the forest floor of Ellina, in a small area where all the portals were. There was one building higher and bigger than the government center-Grendel's school of magic. No one knew exactly where it was although most thought it was in Ellina. The same went for all the other instructors, a portal went to their secret home, where they could train without worrying about where the person came from. The portals would also only allow those the instructor chose to let in got through it, to prevent attacks on the instructors.

The portal area was crawling with people, as always, when he reached it. Although a few of the people there actually wanted to speak with their masters, most were there to train. All of the instructors all possessed very good training areas, and places to train without risk. Ignoring the stares of awe around him, Travis paid one of the stable masters nearby, then dismounted and walked towards the warrior portal. After waiting in a line, he walked into the portal. He was recognized almost instantly, and felt the familiar sensation of being weightless as he teleported to the Warrior Academy.

The scenery at the academy was quite different from that of Ellina. There were few buildings, but many enclosed practice areas, where people could train against monsters. No one knew where they got the monsters from, or why you couldn't sustain fatal wounds in these areas, but nearly everyone used them anyway. Travis was headed towards the largest building today.

Dances With Balrog had built a fairly nice residence, but did not have many comforts. As Travis walked through it, he noticed it was exactly the same as the last time he had come here, when he became a White Knight. His abilities had surpassed what he could do then by far, through thousands of hours of training. There were many doors lining the hall that led to the instructor's personal chambers, and Travis had no idea what was behind any of them. He did not care either. Today, he was going to become a Paladin, fulfill his goal in life.

He walked in to the chambers of Dances With Balrog, the warrior instructor. He was greeted with a short nod.

"Matthew Travis, I've been expecting you for a long time. You have always been one of my best students, one of the few who can use all four weapons of the white knight well. However, am I correct in guessing you still favor two handed maces?" he asked.

"You are quite correct. I currently wield a Dragon Flame mace, which, I am quite happy to say, was found and scrolled by me." It was one of his proudest achievements. All his other weapons had been bought, but the Dragon Flame mace was his and his alone.

"Ah yes, I remember the first time I acquired a powerful weapon all by myself…it is a great feeling, and I've noticed that most who do it feel a special bond with that weapon, as I did myself." The instructor said, reminiscent of some old era.

"Yes, I'm very proud of it. Now then, your suspicions are correct. I am here to train as a paladin." Travis stated.

"A paladin…yes one of the greatest warriors. You wish to acquire the final book of teachings."

"Yes" Travis said.

"Very well then. Be informed of the rules. There are two tasks you need to complete. The first is to face a giant dragon, Manon, in battle. The second is of a similar nature. You must kill Griffey, an overgrown griffon. Both of these are not real creatures that you could find in the wild, but created here. However, they will still kill you if given the chance. Also…no second chances. This has always been the rule. If you fall, I will not resurrect you. If you think you will lose, I will not help. You get one chance at these challenges, and there is no turning back. Either you complete them…or you die."

His stern tone only reminded Travis of the weight of this task. His mother had died when he was young while attempting her fourth job advancement as a paladin. His father had never even gotten to third job, a politician for life. He was ready to take this test himself, ready to prove he was as good as people claimed.

"I am ready" He said with confidence.

"Good, my child. Now then, step into the portal. When you find and defeat Manon, return to where you entered the forest and touch this necklace. It will allow you to return. I will know if you defeat him, or if you perish. I wish you luck, and a speedy return." A portal appeared behind the instructor. Travis walked towards it, and paused in front of it. He took a quick look around. This could be it, his last look at this place. It was the beginning of something great, or the end of it all. He took a deep breath, and entered the portal.

Travis landed in the middle of a forest unknown to him. The trees were not nearly as big as those of Ellina. It was a nice sunny day, but there was no sign of life anywhere. He started to walk through the forest, taking a small path through the trees.

Manon, the dragon, was nowhere to be seen, even after he walked for a few hours. However, when he exited the forest, he found what was presumably the lair of the beast: A large cave, in a small canyon. He would have to jump down about ten feet into it, and then go to the cave. There was no sound coming from it, but a small population of drakes surrounded it.

Travis drew his mace, and a second later, it was surrounded by crackling electricity, like tiny bolts of lightning. Then, he jumped down into the canyon.

Within seconds drakes were rushing towards him, but they were no match for a warrior such as himself. With a few swings of his mace, the drakes were killed. He walked towards the cave, but right then, a dragon came flying out of it, towards him. It was fifteen feet tall, and had huge wings, evidently made for flying. Its body and scales were red, but its belly was more of a yellow.

"So you're Manon, huh?" He said, readying himself for the first strike. "Bring it."

The dragon roared and sent a blast of fire towards him. Travis deftly rolled out of the way, showing surprising agility for a warrior. As the dragon's claw came sweeping toward him, Travis swung his mace at it. The attack struck home, but the dragon's other claw was on him, slamming him in the back and sending him flying. He landed, the impact knocking the wind out of him.

Travis quickly got up, looking around, but the dragon seemed to be nowhere around him…until he looked up. Manon was flying down towards him, and a burst of fire leapt out of the beast's mouth. Having no time to dodge, Travis looked down, closed his eyes, and covered his face with his arm. The fire burned him, but he took the heat. When the flames stopped, Travis looked back up. The dragon was circling again. Travis ran and hid under a small lip in the cliff above, with difficulty. The dragon's flames had smelted some of the plates of his armor together, making it hard to move.

Without maneuverability, Travis didn't stand a chance. He quickly took his armor off and discarded it. Then, he looked back out to try to find the dragon.

It was flying high in the sky, apparently planning to use its fire and ability to fly to win the battle. It was a smart tactic; Travis could not hit opponents far away from him. After thinking for a second, Matthew decided he wouldn't stand a chance here. He had to get to the forest, where the large trees would prevent the dragon's fire from reaching him. It might burn down the forest, but he could keep running until the dragon got tired of chasing him and decided to land. He gave the cliff near him a quick glance, identifying anything he could use to scale it quickly. Manon was still circling, unable to see Travis from its position in the sky, although Travis knew it would find him before long.

Once the dragon was on the other side of the cave, Travis moved. He threw his mace onto the top of the cliff, and then quickly scaled it, using the footholds he had identified earlier. Right as he reached the top, the dragon had turned back and saw him.

Travis grabbed his mace and sprinted towards the forest. Another blast of fire burst from the dragon's mouth as he entered. Fortunately, the trees took the blast for him, breaking up and stopping the flames. However, these trees also were ablaze. Manon, still flying, looked for a clear path to attack the knight, but found none. Remembering his journey through the forest, Travis thought of a clearing not far from here. He could stop in the trees surrounding it, so the dragon would be unable to attack him with fire and decide to land there, and then he would kill it.

He quickly sprinted towards the clearing, the dragon following, sending bursts of fire down, and lighting the forest up. However, the dragon had been constantly breathing fire, and it had exhausted the glands that provided it with the ability. Because of this, the fire was not as hot and did not spread quickly. In fact, sometimes, it didn't even light the trees up. Travis was no longer worried about this ability, but still planned to go for the clearing. In a smaller place, the dragon would have trouble using all of its limbs to attack. When he got close to the clearing, the dragon reacted quickly. Upset at not being able to reach the white knight below, it flew down into the clearing as soon as he saw it.

Travis rushed towards the beast right after it landed, and leapt into the air towards it. The jump gave him extra height, so he could hit the dragon somewhere besides its feet. As Manon had just landed, the assault surprised him, and he did not defend himself. Manon roared and threw him. Travis, unfortunately, landed in the clearing instead of in the trees. Manon tried to stomp on him, his huge feet slamming into the ground and throwing up small pieces of dirt. Travis quickly rolled away from its feet. Realizing he needed height, and that he didn't have the ability to surprise it with a jump, he decided to use his surroundings. Travis climbed the trees around the battlefield, dodging and jumping to other ones when Manon tried to attack him.

Eventually, he reached the top, and was level with Manon's head. Just as the monster was ready to unleash another spray of fire at him, the short break enough to recharge, Travis jumped from his perch towards it. He managed to clear the flames, and slammed the dragon's head as he passed it. The Dragon Flame mace made a satisfying crackling sound as it impacted. His skull crushed, Manon fell, hitting the ground and not moving. Travis stood where he had landed, a few feet away from the corpse. He stayed there panting for a few moments, then cut off part of Manon's horns and tail as proof, and a trophy. One down, one to go.

* * *

"Archie, damn it, how much farther?" Gath Enders was walking up Crimsonwood Mountain, strafing the occasional windraider that got in his way.

"Not much longer, my friend." The sniper replied. They were heading towards an area of the mountain near the top that had a large population of windraiders.

"Better not be." Gath said. They had been climbing for hours, and nothing interesting had happened, aside from a small massacre of windraiders a while ago. "Because of travel time, I doubt we'll be able to get some good training in _and _get back before it's really late."

"Who said anything about getting back tonight?" Archie said "I was planning to stay up here for three or four days. Is that a problem?"

"Dammit. I can deal with it, but it would have been nice to know. I do have a job you know" In reality, Gath was very anxious about what was going on at the fifth battle group. He had not received any reports, save one that said the leader was leaving to go do something. It had been a week since his agents were inserted; he had been hoping to find out more by this point.

"Yes and your job is very important." Archie said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Come on, just climb the damn hill. By the way, how much longer do you think you have to go until you can use a nisrock?" He spoke of the next class of bow, more powerful than his metus.

"I'm fine with what I've got right now. I don't think I need an upgrade anytime soon. However, I think I could wield one now. I was trying some out right before I stopped training, and was pretty good with it." The different classes of bows separated people by their skill level, each higher class required more strength and skill to use.

"Well, you should see about getting one." Archie said

"Why? I just told you I was happy with what I have." Gath said. It was nice to be with Archie again, but the sniper always found a way to annoy him. Gath hated talking about what bow he used. He didn't mind though, the two of them were great friends.

"Status. You may not be big on the scene of powerful adventurers, but I am." Archie said. Gath could tell he was trying not to appear like he was bragging.

"Oh? And what's so special about a nisrock?" Gath asked.

"It shows you're big time. That's one thing you notice. Some incredibly powerful archers still use nisrocks, and this makes them important. If you have a metus, people think you're strictly little league. However, with a nisrock, anyone will think you're pretty skilled, pretty powerful. They'll treat you differently." Archie explained.

"Well, I can see how that would work. If I'm getting back into training, it would be nice to have a new bow, and because of my position, any upgrade in status is welcome." Gath said. He was always looking for ways to improve how he looked. He was very young to hold his position, so it helped to have things improve his status.

"My thoughts exactly. Which is why I wanted to tell you about a potential seller I know; Cade Rentiir. Ever heard of him? I think he does some military stuff as well." Archie said.

"No, but the Rentiirs are fairly famous. They're supposed to be really rich." Gath said. Rentiir was a name he had heard often, but never that of Cade.

"Ah, well, he loves adventuring a lot, as well as military. He goes to fight Zakum all the time. I've accompanied him multiple times. Anyway, he's got a fairly nice black nisrock from one of these fights, and he's looking to sell it."

This served to remind Gath of the fact that he had not yet fought Zakum. He was somewhat ashamed of this fact, as most people as experienced as him already had.

"Alright, what is he asking for it?"

"150, straight up cash" Archie tossed the number around as if it was nothing.

"150? That's a lot of money for a bow." Gath said. He hoped Archie was aware that the military didn't pay as well as monster hunting.

"Well, it is a nisrock, and a fairly nice one at that." Do you have that much?" Archie asked.

"Yeah, I have about two-hundred stored away. Still, it'll drain most of that." Gath said. Only Archie could have made him consider spending 75% of his savings in a short conversation.

"Well, you don't have to decide yet. If you're interested, I'll set up a meeting with him, and you can try out the bow." Archie said. He tried to sound like he wasn't going to force Gath into anything, but Gath could tell he thought he needed the bow.

"That sounds great." Gath said. "What the hell is that?"

Standing in front of them was some sort of wall, but it was unlike any wall Gath had seen before. It rose to the heavens, and was only visible when they were close by. The wall was pure black, as if made from tangible darkness.

"What the fuck" Archie said. "This was never here before"

He walked up to it and tried to put his hand through it, but it was stopped.

"Well, it's certainly solid enough. I don't what it is though."

Gath raised his bow and fired a spray of arrows at it. They bounced off, unable to penetrate the darkness. Then, Archie tried to ram into it with a running start, but did not affect it.

"Sorry man, but there's nothing we can do." Archie said "We'll have to try to find a way around it."

The pair began a circuit around the wall, but after an hour, they had achieved no result.

"Guess we'll have to come back later. I'm going to report this to somebody, see if anyone knows what's going on" Archie said.

"Yeah, it sucks." Gath said. "I can try to use military contacts to figure out what's going on." The two of them started to walk away. When they got a certain distance away, the wall disappeared.

"Wait a second." Gath said

"What?" Archie asked

"A quick idea. Send your eagle up to see if it can fly over the wall" Gath said

"Worth a shot"

However, when they returned to the place where the wall had stood before, it was no longer there.

"What the fuck?" Archie said again. "First it's here, and now it's gone? What just happened?"

"No idea mate. So, onto the windraiders?" Gath said

Archie just shook his head, and continued to lead the way to their intended training spot.

* * *

Matthew Travis stared at the huge dragon. Manon had been a powerful beast. Had he really reached the point where he could face something such as this? Years ago, he had thought even drakes were a challenge, and now he could kill one of the most deadly dragons.

Dragons had always held a special place in the mind of Travis. Untrained and with no weapons, they were deadlier than any other being. To him, dragons represented the _perfect_ creature. They could fly, they had powerful ranged weapons, and they were stronger than anything else at physical combat. Now, he had mastered one of the most powerful. He only knew of one dragon that had power greater than Manon's. That was Horntail, a great and powerful beast hiding on the island of Leafre. No one could kill it, but it had been defeated by powerful adventurers many times. The reward for this deed was the Horntail necklace, and any other powerful weapons it left behind.

Travis sat down next to the beast, and meditated for hours. This was a standard procedure for him. After any battle against a powerful opponent, whether he commanded others or fought by himself, whether he won or lost, and whether it was easy or hard, he always did this. Matthew went through the battle again in his mind countless times. Although the fight had barely lasted ten minutes, and most of that time he had been running through a forest, he thought of what he could have done differently, or of what he could have done in a different scenario, asking himself those questions.

_What would I have done if I couldn't scale the cliff? _Fled towards the cave.

_And if the cave did not offer satisfactory protection from above?_ Hide under the overhang, and use a drake's body to protect myself. Their skin can resist fire, and I might be able to get the dragon to the ground.

_What if the dragon had retained its ability to use fire in the forest?_ I would have thrown rocks at it and insulted it while near the clearing, staying behind the trees and trying to taunt it until it landed.

The process continued for around three hours, until Travis was convinced he had thought of everything that could have happened differently. The meditation had been boring when he had first started it, but since then he had started to look forward to the period after the battle, where he could think of new strategies to use and assess how well he had fought. He had noticed a great improvement in his fighting abilities since he had started doing this.

It was almost dusk in the forest, so Travis decided to end his journey. He took a short detour, going back to the cave where Manon lived and acquiring his damaged armor. He had some small training in armorsmithing, but the damage to his Neos armor was far beyond his level of skill. He knew that an experienced professional could deal with the damage, but it would take money and time. It was not a problem though. He had vast amounts of money, his own money, at his disposal. Not all of it was his father's, and considering what was about to happen, he would have been surprised if his father didn't disown him.

He threw his armor over the edge of the cliff, and then began to climb it again. When he reached the top, he walked to the forest and headed towards another area from his memory, where he had left his pack before heading towards the cave. He took out a bottle of water, and put on an enchanted robe that he left in there for emergencies. He would have put his damaged armor in there, but because the plates were smelted together he couldn't retract those plates to make the armor take up a smaller amount of space. He would have to carry it back.

It was night by the time he reached the clearing he had landed in, and he was tired from the journey and the battle.

"Damn it Matt, you should be able to do things like that and keep on going" Once he realized how much he needed sleep, he resolved to build up his endurance as soon as possible. He touched the necklace, as his instructor had taught, and found himself teleporting back to the warrior academy, and his instructor's chambers.

Dances With Balrog was still sitting in the same position he had been in when Travis had left, though Travis felt as if he had slept for a year. It was as if only a second had passed during his journey.

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised. You always were one of the best. It's a shame about your armor though" the warrior said. He seemed to be proud of Matthew.

"Thank you. You knew about my armor? You can watch what happens?" Travis said. He was interested in how the entire system worked.

"Yes, I can. It is a nice bit of magic that allows me to do so, although not quite as nice as the system that can constantly recreate that area, and that dragon, for all who wish to advance."

"Well then, I guess I won't need these" Travis said, holding out the pieces of Manon he had kept with him.

"No, you do not require those forms of proof. It does not mean you need to get rid of them though. Many choose to keep trophies from their advancement. Now then, on to part two. Griffey." Dances With Balrog said.

"Yes. Am I allowed to see someone about my armor first though?" Matthew was hoping he could fight the powerful griffon with more than just a robe, no matter how many enchantments it had on it.

"Unfortunately not." The instructor sounded somewhat annoyed, as if he thought it was a dumb rule, or was rooting for Travis. "You must go into the first challenge ready to complete them both."

"That is very unfortunate." Travis said. "However, I will take on the griffon all the same."

"Are you sure, my child? There are also rules regarding this. After defeating one monster, you are allowed to leave, and call it quits. However, you may not retake the test for a year after doing so, and you must fight Manon again. If you do not think you are ready, it is a wise decision to leave." He spoke with concern.

"No. I came here to become a paladin. I will not turn back now, not when I am so close. I am ready. I am going to kill Griffey." Travis spoke with conviction. He knew what he was going to do, and he knew he was ready. The lack of heavy armor was a setback, but it might turn out to be helpful if the griffon was extremely fast anyway.

"Very well. The task is similar to the one you just completed. I will send you through a portal, with another necklace to let you return. You must find and kill Griffey. Also, be warned, the necklace will not function until you kill Griffey"

"I'm not surprised." Travis said

The instructor continued "There will be no time limit." Dances With Balrog seemed to come out of his teacher mode for a second, and talked to Travis as a friend.

"Please be careful. I do not want to use a pupil as bright and as talented as you are. You have potential to be one of the greatest paladins ever, achieving the advancement at your age."

"Thank you sir" Travis said.

"Well…good luck" Dances With Balrog said. A portal appeared. Travis discarded his pack, took a few things out to carry with him, and he entered it.

He was on a large ship, stationary in the middle of the sea. Griffons surrounded it, but none seemed huge. A quick estimation told him that about fifty were around him. As the griffons noticed him, they acted as one, and swarmed him. Flames appeared around his blade, and he used the technique of charge blow to easily defeat them. As the drakes had been, these griffons had merely been preparation for the real thing.

Travis' skill and his robe had prevented him from receiving a scratch from the griffons, but he doubted he would say the same for Griffey. The huge animal burst from the sea underneath his ship. It looked nothing like a normal griffon.

For one thing, it was ten feet tall and twenty feet long, compared to the average three feet tall and six feet long normal griffon. Second of all, normal griffons had yellow bodies and orange wings. Griffey's body and wings were both brown, while its head was coated with white feathers, looking more like an overgrown eagle than a griffon. Finally, Griffey had a small pendant hanging around its neck.

The water from Griffey's entrance smashed into the ship, but only a small amount came over the deck. The animal roared, and then its eyes glowed. Realizing it was about to strike, Travis rolled out of the way. A beam of light was sent out from its horn, slamming into the deck where Travis had been standing a second ago. Boards were blasted up from the deck, and wood splintered. The beam went straight through the deck to the hull, smashing that too. The boat began to take on water, but it could still easily float for a while.

Griffey was not satisfied with this result, and struck again. Another beam of light flew from its horn, slamming into the deck. It repeated this tactic a few times, without success, as Travis was too quick. Determined to kill the small invader, Griffey left his safe position ten feet away from the stationary ship and flew away. Unsure what it was doing, Travis dropped his guard and stared at it. A few seconds later he realized what was going on.

Griffey turned, and flew towards the ship, attaining high speeds. Travis knew what his tactic was here. He ran towards the edge of the ship that Griffey was charging, and at the right moment, propelled himself into the air. He had timed the jump right and landed on Griffey's back.

Maintaining his grip on his mace with one hand, he held onto Griffey with the other. He had formulated a plan to do this before he had entered, and now executed it. He brought the rope from his belt around Griffey's neck. The animal was now bucking wildly, trying to throw him off, but his great strength kept him on its back.

He got the rope around the other side, and tied a knot with it. Travis sheathed his mace, pulled back hard on the rope. Using it to control Griffey, he asserted his will over the beast. However, when he held it stationary and reached for the small sword he kept with him, planning to cut off its horn and then stab it to death, it acted. Griffey dived straight down, and Travis knew exactly what it was planning to do. Right before it hit the surface of the water; Travis leapt off of its back, and hurried to swim back to this ship, his blade forgotten.

As he pulled himself back onto the deck, Griffey resurfaced. He had achieved nothing except pissing it off. Before, the white knight had been little more than an annoyance to the griffon. Now, it was an enemy. Griffey roared, and shot a spray of light beams at the ship.

By this point, the damage from before had started to have an effect, and the ship was slowly starting to sink. The renewed assault did not help its chances. Once again, these attacks were not enough to hurt Travis, but the ship was bombarded and unable to sustain that much damage. The huge holes on the deck and in the hull of the ship made it look as if it had been attacked sustained cannon fire for hours. As it sank into the depths of the sea, Griffey charged it again.

However, the monster learned from its mistakes. Right before it attacked, it shot a beam of light straight at Travis, and modified its course. Right after he dodged the beam, Matthew was caught in the chest by one of Griffey's claws. He yelled in pain, the robe was not near enough to protect the direct attack.

Choosing to abandon the doomed ship, Travis jumped into the water.

_What the hell am I supposed to do now? _He thought. _This monster has already hurt me, and now I have no land to stand on. _

His greatest fear was confirmed when Griffey circled around again, and blasted another beam of light at him. Unable to move effectively in the water, this caught him dead on. Travis was sent flying into the air by the blast, landing back in the water in intense pain. He surfaced, and then looked around for a loose board or wreckage from the ship, which had now sunk.

He found what he was looking for, and clambered onto it. Griffey attempted to hit the board with another beam of light, but Travis had found another board nearby and used it as a paddle. The warrior's immense strength allowed him to propel his makeshift raft through the water with enough speed to avoid the attack. Griffey tried this conservative approach for another minute, but every time, Travis managed to avoid the attack. Deciding to be more aggressive, the monster flew towards the boat, claws outstretched.

This was what Travis had been waiting for. He had noticed earlier that his rope was still around Griffey's neck. As his enemy approached, he ducked down and reached his arm up. The claws cut into his back, but did not deal enough damage to put him down. When he felt the rope, he grabbed it, being pulled along by Griffey.

Showing great athleticism, Travis swung himself around and climbed back onto Griffey's back. This time, he was determined to learn from his mistake of not killing it right away. Griffey tried to repeat its tactic of diving into the water, but Travis held on with his legs. He raised his mace into the air, and brought it down on Griffey's head. Just as Manon had died, Griffey was killed. The monster's momentum carried them both into the water at high speed, and Travis was separated from the monster.

He surfaced. The water around him was turning red from his blood. He looked around, and saw Griffey's body a few yards away. He swam over to it, and claimed the horn as his own. As there was no place to sit, he decided to meditate later, and touched the necklace. In an instant, he found himself back in the warrior academy, fully refreshed and healed of all wounds.

* * *

Jamison Bradford walked through his camp. Travis had been gone for a few days now, and he was hoping the commander would be back soon. He had no idea how his leader managed to keep up with it all. Massive amounts of paperwork, scheduling, and running drills tired him out. Also, West had not tried to speak with him at all. Maybe Travis was wrong about him.

It was around noon that day. A few archers and assassins were training on targets nearby. Jamison watched in satisfaction as a spread of arrows flew at them, almost every one hitting the bullseye. The fifth battle group was one of the best at archery. Nearby, duels were taking place; the battle group's head bishop watching over them, ready to heal the fallen. A few mages were practicing circle magic nearby, summoning huge bolts of lightning and sending them flying into the sky. Jamison was about to go over to tell them to stop, as someone could find their position from the bolts, when he heard a cry of pain from the range behind him.

He spun around. The archers and thieves were gone, but one was left, killed by an arrow, near the targets. Had a training accident happened? He looked back towards the mages, saw them running. Then, an arrow came from the trees and hit one in the back.

Suddenly, a storm of arrows and stars was flying all around him, coupled with bursts of magic. Nearly three hundred warriors came running from the trees towards the camp, from three different directions. As they attacked, they screamed their battle cry.

"FOR WESTERN VICTORIA!"

There was pandemonium everywhere; nobody knew what was happening. Bradford joined the rush of people heading towards the center of the camp, hoping someone knew what was going on. Then, he realized _he_ was the one who was supposed to know everything that happened. He was the commander!

Bradford heard a warrior running up behind him. He turned, and swung his Battle Hammer towards his opponent. It caught the enemy in the head, knocking him down. Another blow to the head finished him. When Jamison looked around for more enemies, he saw none, except for a few more vanishing into the trees. The area they had attacked directly was burning to ashes. Bodies were strewn all about, nearly all of them his.

A few of his soldiers nearby looked to him for guidance.

"What the hell was that all about?" A nearby warrior asked

"I say we track down those fucking bastards and kill them all" An archer said

"Why would Western Victoria want to attack us?" This time it was a mage

"Commander, what should we do?" The warrior again.

Bradford stood there, thinking it over for a few moments. During that time, a small crowd gathered around him.

"So…it's war then. I want some mages to get a circle going. Travis left me a name of someone to contact. I want to talk to him directly. He's a senator; he can get his own circle arranged. Meanwhile" He pointed to the archer "Get colonel Underhill. Tell him to get a scouting group organized. You, mage, get Colonel Tate and get his command searching the bodies, saving those they can, and try to find a living member of the attack group. All clerics should join him as well. The rest of you…go start chopping down trees. I want a palisade ready by tomorrow." He looked at his clerk, who had just come over. "Girton. Get orders drawn up to cancel all supplies, we can't let them get stolen. Come on people, move it! We need to be ready for a SIEGE!"

* * *

"Congratulations" Dances With Balrog said. "You are a paladin" He was very pleased.

Travis turned to look at him. He had just gotten back, and needed a moment to let that idea hit him. "Thank you sir."

"You did very well. I thought you were finished for a second, but you held on." The instructor smiled. "Great job. Now then, the blessing."

A light shone above Travis, and he felt some strange power come over him. Immediately, he felt much stronger.

"Thank you sir. What is there to teach me about the techniques?" He asked.

"Ah yes. I thought you would never ask." Dances With Balrog pulled out a large tome: _Paladin of Light._ "This will tell you how to use the fabled techniques of a paladin. However, if you need extra help with one of the skills detailed in there, be sure to see me."

The instructor had said this every time, and Travis had never seen him. He had not had trouble mastering any of the earlier skills. He opened the book and skimmed through it. _Holy charge, Advanced Charge Blow, Heaven's Hammer…_Soon, these great powers would be his.

"Thank you, master" Travis said.

He left the room, very pleased with himself for advancing. However, this was only the first task on his journey. The second was the political arena of EV.

Matthew returned to the entrance of the warrior academy, and took the portal out. He was teleported back to where he had come from: Ellina. Huge trees towered around him once more. Travis left his hog where it was, and began the long climb towards his house.

Matthew Travis had one of the nicest homes in the area, a large mansion hanging down from between the trees. It had been purchased by his father, but was now his alone. It had become the official meeting place for his political organization, a group of radicals known as the Action Committee, or AC. They had been formed from a group of powerful members to work on the plan, and were now ready to execute it. All members of AC had been waiting in his home for all of today, waiting for him. It did not take long for him to reach there, as there were several teleportation spots to allow people to quickly move around.

Travis entered his home, and gave his damaged armor to a servant, telling him to find an armorsmith who would fix it. Matthew had a good name in the city; all would know he would pay for the job.

After dealing with his armor, he entered the meeting room of his house. All twenty members of AC were there. The EV senate had a total of one-hundred members.

"Matthew Travis…I thought you'd never show up!" One senator said

"Nice to see you too." Travis replied. "Well then, are all the pieces in play?"

"Yes sir, arrangements have been made. The big vote is set for tomorrow. Your speech will help push it in our favor. We already have large bribes in to sixty others, besides the crazy conservatives. The treasury is completely empty."

"Sounds great." Travis said. "And the attacks on my camp?"

"Were executed perfectly." Another senator said. "I have a lot of influence over the mercenaries, and I made sure we only used the best. Bradford is outraged. He said it was very clear that the attacks were made by WV. Also, we have staged attacks on several other camps."

"Thank you Eric. Well then…a toast?"

His servants poured everyone a glass of wine, and they toasted the success of tomorrow.

* * *

Jessie Seneca walked through his camp until he found his second-in-command, Lance Eckhart.

"Well? Eckhart said

"It has been executed perfectly. The diversion may have been noticed, but no one knows why it was there. I have what I went there for." Seneca sounded pleased

"That's great" Lance said. He too sounded happy. "So, we now have two."

"Yes. How have things gone here?" Seneca asked

"Great. Our final push was successful. We quickly drove them back to the eleventh floor."

"Excellent. I'm proud of you. All the pieces are moving together." Seneca said.

* * *

Travis entered the government center, ready for the most important day of his life. AC had worked, and now it was finally here. The bribes were in, the vote was scheduled, and all that was left were the final remarks by both sides. The side for going to war with WV had nominated him as their speaker. The senate was always open to the public, although they were kept behind soundproof walls, and could only hear, not be heard. It was empty today though. The vote was a secret. It wasn't a good idea to let another nation know you're considering going to war with them.

Every single senator was there, and it was one of the few times this had ever happened. Most of the time, at least one senator was sick or busy, so they sent a proxy, but today everyone was here. After excited chatter between all of the senators, the courtmaster, an elderly man who had held the position for years, called the senate to order. The courtmaster ran all the senate debates. Today, however, there would be no debates, only votes. Through the use of thirty million mesos, AC had guaranteed that Travis could go second. This way, he could refute the other senator's arguments. It was the superior position.

"First to speak, Senator Josey Hendricks" The courtmaster said. Travis recognized the name from his youth. Josey had often been to his father's house, and was one of the biggest conservatives there was. He was against the decision from the start. Josey stepped up in front of the senate.

"Good day, my friends. We are here because of a rather important issue. Recently, our borders have been attacked by the forces of WV. Our security is at risk. Even before these attacks we were considering an open war with our enemies. However, I ask you, is this the correct course of action? Think about it. Eastern Victoria has never been in a war. Ever. Throughout our entire existence, we have been a peaceful nation. However, other countries have not. For example, El Nath was recently involved in a war with Aqua Road, and is currently fighting Orbis. Do you wish to be the one to start the first war in our nation's history?"

"Also, despite the fact that we have never been in a war, we have an idea of what this does because of El Nath's experiences. What we can see from their experiences is not something we want to happen to our nation. As soon as El Nath started their war, they took severe economic losses. You can talk all you want about how they won that war and how they gained so much from that victory, but we cannot guarantee a victory. If we do not manage to win, the consequences are great. El Nath owed huge amounts of money to many other nations after the war. Also, their available manpower was devastated, hundreds of families left without those who used to earn money for them. If we have to pay for a war, several other plans, such as the one to focus more on schools, will have to be put on hold as we begin this new venture. El Nath had the good fortune to defeat Aqua Road quickly, within a year. If we win, but not quickly, our economy will be devastated, which we cannot deal with. Finally, if we lose, the consequences will be great. You all saw what happened to Aqua Road when they lost. Aqua Road no longer _exists._ Do you wish to see that happen to us? Even if EV stays around, where will we be? We cannot hope to enjoy the same level of prosperity, and we cannot hope to rule ourselves the same way we do now. All of our orders will be taken directly from WV. If we choose to start a war, we must win it quickly and decisively."

"Now then, who can say that a quick, decisive victory is possible? There is no way we could do this. We have a terrible navy. There are several here who advocate the naval route, however this is very risky. By landing and fighting using just a navy, El Nath's navy, we make it possible for us to lose just from losing a naval fight. If our supply lines are cut off, we will be stranded and killed. Say WV has no naval defenses. This still means we are reliant on El Nath's navy. If El Nath decides to stop us short of the prize, and use this war to weaken both WV and EV, we can't do anything to stop them. Also, there is no guarantee that we have the manpower to win this way. Hettinger realized that a wall was not enough, and built a network of forts along the coast. It would require a powerful attack, one which we can't do at the moment, to take WV by a naval attack. As for the land route, we all know what is there. Hettinger's wall, a huge structure, stretches from coast to coast. Again, it will require a great amount of force to break through this wall, and amount of force we do not have available. We will not be able to win a war."

"Finally, who says war is the best, or only, option? EV would not have gotten where we are today if we declared war over the smallest things. The tactic of choice in our arsenal has always been diplomacy. When you encounter a problem, you do not hit it as hard as you can until it goes away, because it will hit back. That does not benefit either party. You must find a solution that works for both parties, that makes both of us happy. We cannot simply ignore Western Victoria's view on this issue. For all we know, the attacks could have been a group of insane people who feel it is their duty to fight for WV. If WV does not want this, then it is a problem that we both have and can work together towards fixing. Just because we don't like each other does not mean we need conflict. At the very least, we should find out more about these attacks before we declare war. Thank you for your time. I hope you all realize, as I do, that our true choice here is diplomacy."

Josey stepped down.

"Thank you, Mr. Hendricks. Will senator Matthew Travis take the stand?" The courtmaster said. Matthew stepped up in front of the entire senate.

"Hello there. I'm glad to see that all of you came out today. Whether you are with me or against me, it's important to see this much participation. So, I know the question on all your minds. You all want to know why we should go to war with WV"

"Well, if you all look at the issue closely, I'm sure you'll find the answer is quite obvious. You see, Western Victoria has been a thorn in our side for years. They have all of the resources, they control the power here. It is time for us to fight back. What better time than now, when their allies in Orbis can't help them and when we have been building up our military? Why should we have military buildup if we are not planning to use it? Eight percent. Eight percent of our money each year goes towards the military. This is wasted if we do not use the military when we need to. The time is now. We need to fight. We need to show WV what we are made of. How can you consider asking why we should go to war, after they have attacked multiple camps and killed over a thousand of our soldiers? It is not a time for sitting there and trying to talk to them, it is a time for action."

"I know that many of you have doubts about whether we will win or not. Let me say this to you right now: We will win this war. Think about it. WV is obviously afraid of us. They have more people and more resources, yet _they _are the ones to build a huge wall. They are afraid of our military might. It is time to join our great allies from El Nath, and to fight! It is time to take control of Victoria Island! I am sure our friends will not sell us out with their navy, and if they do, we have arranged a two way attack. We will hit the coast and Hettinger's Wall at the same time. Hettinger's Wall is a powerful defense, but it is long and spread out. It can be easily bypassed by a massed attack on one location. Once we break through, it will take no time at all to take control of WV. You need not worry about our ability to win."

"If you choose not to fight now, when will you? When will you decide it is finally time to use the trillions of mesos we have? Do they have to knock on our front door and say "We wish to fight you"? Do they have to burn Ellina to the ground? How far will we let them go before we fight back? We cannot go any farther. It is time to stop them from bullying us around. We cannot let them do what they want anymore. They have already attacked us. It is time to take action my friends. It is time to fight."

Travis stepped down.

"Thank you Mr. Travis" the courtmaster said. Now then, if you will all cast your votes…

The buttons in front of each senator started glowing. Green was for yes and Red for no. All of the votes would be recorded by the courtmaster, and announced when all were in. Travis returned to his seat, next to Eric Reif.

"So, how did I do?" He asked

"It was great. It won't make a huge difference, because of the bribes, but it was still helpful." Eric said.

Travis nodded. Both of them pressed the green button, for the war. It took less than ten minutes for everyone to decide their vote. At this point, the courtmaster stood up.

"All of the votes have been cast. The result has been determined." The chatter in the senate quickly died down at this point.

"The result of the vote for going to war with WV is 73 for and 27 against. It has been determined that EV will declare war with WV, once certain preparations will be made. In the next week, we will meet at ten every day, to debate and nominate candidates to be the commander-in-chief, and to vote on ways to attack. At the end of next week, we will vote on the holders of these two positions. That is all."

As soon as the courtmaster finished, the senate erupted with cheers, mainly from members of AC. Others, including Josey Hendricks and Travis' dad, looked dejected at losing the vote.

"Great job." Reif said. "This was all your idea. It wouldn't have been possible without you. Great job, kid."

Travis smiled. "Thank you. Part one is done then. Now for the real challenge. Let's go win us a war!


	4. Impact

A/N: First of all, thanks to all readers and reviewers. It really means a lot to see people read this. So, chapter three is now up. Please let me know what you think of it; tell me what you liked and what I could do better. Enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter Three: Impact**

_One Week Later_

Gath was walking with Archie Lamont, the sniper leading the way. It was a beautiful day outside, the sun shining and all of the snow had melted. However, the weather did little to make Gath feel better.

Things with EV had taken a turn for the worse, although he did not know how bad it would be. His only other report from his spies was that the fifth battle group was on the move. Their destination and goal was known only to the commander, Matthew Travis. Travis had rejoined his battle group recently, now a paladin. His skills impressed Gath, and he had made a mental note to watch out for Travis.

As they walked, Gath shifted the pack he was wearing. It was uncomfortable to carry it, but it was necessary. The two archers were headed this way in order to meet with Cade Rentiir, a hero that Archie knew well. He was supposed to be selling a dark nisrock that Gath was interested in. The listed price was one-hundred and fifty million in cash, so Gath was forced to carry it all in his pack.

"This had better be worth the trip" Gath said, slightly annoyed. Traveling for an hour carrying a heavy pack of mesos was not his idea of a good time.

"Don't worry." Archie replied. "Cade is a great guy. In fact, he may even give you the chance to fight Zakum. You still haven't fought him yet, have you?"

"…No" Gath said. He didn't like to advertise that fact.

"Well, you may get your chance soon enough" Archie was particularly cheerful that day. He seemed to think this Cade was amazing, and was eager to see him again.

The vision of the two archers had been obscured by huge pine trees that seemed to form a sort of fence around something. Gath assumed this was the house, or mansion, that Rentiir owned. Sure enough, they soon reached an opening through the trees. A large path went through there, leading into the middle of the complex. When Gath turned in towards the house, he stopped walking for a moment, staring at the center in awe.

It was a beautiful sight, full of fountains and gardens. The sides of the path leading up to the mansion were guarded by huge statues, silent sentries. There was one for each of the ten classes, poised and ready to fight.

Behind all of this stood the central feature: the mansion. Cade's house was huge. It rose three stories into the air and was hundreds of feet across. Huge stone steps led up to the entrance, and the doors were nearly fifteen feet in height.

"Pretty nice, eh?" Archie said, seeing Gath's look of awe. He thought back to the first time he had seen the place, and realized his reaction must have been similar.

"…Yeah…" Gath said, still taking it in.

Archie gave him a second, watching as the ranger swept his eyes back and forth over it.

"Alright then, he has a nice house. However, we aren't going to accomplish anything by standing here all day. Let's go and meet him. I told him we would be coming by." Archie said. By this point, Cade's house was not that amazing, and he was used to it.

The sniper grabbed Gath by his arm and shook him out of it.

"Wow." Gath said. "I knew he was rich, but this is amazing."

"Yeah, he has some stuff." Archie replied.

The pair walked up to the house, and walked straight up the steps. Archie knocked on the door. A butler quickly came and let them through the huge blue doors.

"Ah, Mr. Lamont. I heard we would be expecting you." The butler turned to Gath. "And you must be Mr. Enders. I was told you would be coming as well." He extended his hand, and Gath shook it.

"Thanks Carlton." Archie said. "Where is my good friend now?"

"I believe he is out back, in the training grounds. He told me that he would wait for you out there."

As he said this, Gath's eyebrows shot up. _This place has training grounds?_

"Thank you. Gath, leave the bag here." Archie said.

Gath gave Archie a questioning look, but the sniper nodded and Gath complied. The butler, Carlton, took his bag and went off to another room. They two archers went through the house, which Archie obviously knew well, and exited to see a gigantic backyard, complete with a circular arena, an archery range, and some training dummies that were enchanted to constantly move. It wasn't quite the same quality as the job instructor's training grounds, but impressive nonetheless.

There was a warrior dressed in full armor in the middle of all the moving practice dummies. A red blade danced through them elegantly, it was a blur. The warrior was surrounded by floating orbs, and with every attack a new one appeared. As he struck again and again, the orbs turned purple in turn, until there were ten purple ones. With a few more strikes, the warrior cleared all but one dummy. Then, Gath saw the orbs glow and fly into the sword. A purple aura surrounded it. The hero swung his blade, and it hit the dummy. Hard. In addition to the normal sword strike, pure energy was blasted out from the blade as it hit. A small flash was issued from the blade, and suddenly the dummy was gone.

Noticing the two arrivals, the warrior took his helmet off and put it down, then walked towards them. Long blond hair streamed down from his head as he did so.

"Archie! How are you? Haven't seen you in a few weeks." The warrior said. He gripped the sniper's hand and pounded him on the back as he greeted him.

"And you…you must be Gath! I'm Cade Rentiir. This is my place." The warrior introduced himself.

"So" Cade said, giving Gath the once-over. "I hear you're here about my bow."

"That's right." Gath said. The hero's appearance after training was ignored by Gath.

"Well, I got it all ready for you, right over there." He pointed over to the archery strip. "Shall we go have a look?"

The ranger nodded, and the three walked towards it.

"Now then, this bow is something special, I'll tell you that." Cade said. "I picked it up from Zak a little more than a month ago. First thing I do is ask one of my friends to test it. Alyssa Snelling, doubt you've heard of her, is a great bowmistress, just great. I get her to try out all my bows. Anyway, she takes this one, goes right back to the range over there, and fires a few shots. First thing she says is "This is amazing. It's a great bow." Now then, you don't know here like I do, but that remark is high praise coming from her." Cade was talking enthusiastically.

"Well, I hope so." Gath said. "My metus just isn't cutting it for me."

"A metus? You been using a metus? Come on man, get with it! No respectable bowman uses a metus these days!" Cade said, surprised by Gath's bow of choice.

Archie shot a glance at Gath, and the ranger was reminded of a former conversation.

Before long, the trio found themselves at the archery strip. It was a few thousand feet longer. A lot of archery strips designed for the elite were designed like this. The maximum range was longer than anyone could expect to shoot, just to be safe. The targets could then be placed anywhere.

"All right then." Cade said. "The bow is right there," he pointed at a nisrock lying on the ground. "and ready to shoot. Take a few shots, we've gotta know your range. Then, we can set that as the max." He said. Cade placed his hand in a small opening in a pole near the archery strip.

Gath complied with the warrior's wishes, and picked the nisrock. Before using it he examined it. The nisrock seemed nice enough. It was colored jet black, as dark as night. There was a golden grip on it, and a small beak protruded from the top half. Two white dots were painted on the bow behind the beak, giving the bow the appearance of a hawk.

Gath raised the bow and aimed it, getting a feel for the weapon. Then, he conjured arrows into thin air using the technique of soul arrow. He knocked these arrows and let them fly.

After he had fired ten, Cade directed him to stop.

"Alright then. We got your max range." He said. Using the connection he had made with his hand, sent instructions to the archery strip.

"We don't want this to take long, so I'll just give you a full dose now. Ten minutes. All kinds of targets will appear at random locations. Single ones, mobs, the whole deal. Show me what you got"

Gath raised the bow again, ready for the first targets to appear. When the first one did, he picked it out immediately. A salvo of four arrows immediately shot from the bow. The golden shafts hit the dummy, and it disintegrated. However, Gath had no time to admire his work.

After the first one had appeared, the strip had begun to do its job, and it did that job very well. Targets popped up without stopping. Some were in groups, others singular. Every once in a while, a group appeared surrounding Gath, and he had to use the technique of arrow rain to destroy them. However, a multitude of targets was not quite enough. In addition to the dummies popping up, they moved and teleported in every way possible, some even flying through the air.

Gath's instincts kicked in at this point, and he no longer had to stop and think, only act.

_A target to the left, 350 feet away._

Four arrows sent, impact definite.

_A moving mob, 1275 feet on the right._

Flames erupted from his bow, and in a second, they burned the dummies to a crisp.

A constant spread of arrows was sent out, and before long, Gath was weakened by his efforts. However, soon after this point the targets all disappeared. Gath left the bow up for a few more seconds, and then lowered it. He wiped sweat from his forehead.

"Well, that seemed to go rather well." Cade said.

"Yeah. It's been a while since I've been to a range this good." Gath said. He was being honest, but also trying to compliment Cade to soften him up for when they talked price. He was definitely interested in buying the bow, but wished for a chance to talk about it first.

As if reading his mind, Archie stepped in at that point.

"Well then, how about we head inside to talk about it?" The sniper said.

"Capital idea!" Cade answered. "If you'll just head in, I'll take my armor off and meet you soon"

With this, the two archers headed towards the house, Cade towards an equipment shed.

"Well, what do you think of him?" Archie asked. He was hoping Gath would like the hero, as Cade was an old friend.

"He seems a bit…enthusiastic. But he's nice enough." Gath answered.

"Yeah, he gets into whatever is going on. He always has and always will." The sniper led Gath to a small room with a table for four in it.

"So, are you going to buy it?" Archie asked.

"Oh, yes." Gath said. "It's great. All of my attacks seem much stronger with it, I have a more range, it feels more natural…I'm definitely getting this bow." He said.

"Sounds good." The butler came in with three tall glasses of water. It was the middle of winter, but Gath was still sweating from concentrating so hard, so he took a long drink. Just as he finished, Cade entered the room. The tall warrior sat down and stared at Gath for a moment, his blue eyes fixed on the ranger.

"So, Gath," The hero said, relaxing. "What do you think of my bow?"

"I think its pretty damn good." Gath answered. He took another drink from his glass. "It's a lot better than the old metus I was using."

"That's great! So, you're willing to buy it?" Cade said. His voice betrayed his anxiety about it. It seemed he was eager to sell the nisrock. Perhaps Gath could use this to his advantage…

"Well, yes. However, I'm not too sure about the price." Gath said.

"Heh. Military doesn't pay that well, I know that."

"So, would you be willing to lower it a bit? Say, one-thirty?" Gath asked.

"…Alright" Cade said. He said, after only a few seconds of thought.

"Carlton." The hero said loudly, his voice carrying. In a second, the butler was there.

"Yes?" Carlton asked.

"Go get the nisrock and give it to Mr. Enders here." Cade said.

"Take the money from my bag." Gath cut in. "You wanted cash, right? I brought enough. It's one-thirty." He said.

"Of course." The butler replied, and then exited the room.

"Now then, Mr. Enders, I must confess this is not the only reason why I asked you here." Cade said.

"Oh?" Gath said, intrigued.

"You see, Archie told me you did something with the military. Actually, something involving spying." Rentiir said.

"That's true. What of it?" Gath said, wanting to know what the hero's reason was.

"Well, I do some military stuff myself. Sixth division. I wanted to know if there's any explanation behind our recent orders to start training."

_Ah, so that was it. _

"Well, I'm not exactly sure how much I can tell you. It's mainly because EV has started to build up their military. We don't know why, and want to be ready…just in case." He explained.

"Alright." Cade said.

Carlton came back with the nisrock and a significantly lightened pack and handed both to Gath. The two archers got up and started out, but stopped once Cade started talking again.

"Gath, one more thing. You know, you're a pretty good shot with that bow." The hero said. "I'm looking for people like you. As Archie might of told you, I lead groups to Zakum alter fairly often. A good ranger could be helpful. You interested?"

Gath thought about it for a moment.

_Zakum…now? Things could get bad awfully fast there…but I need to fight him sometime._

"Sure. I can help you fight him. When are you planning to go?" He asked.

"Archie will tell you the date; I can contact him once I know. By the way, is it your first time?" Cade asked.

"Yeah." Gath said, somewhat reluctantly. "Why?"

"Ah, a first-timer." He broke into a smile. "Don't worry, it's not a problem. However, there's another thing that has to be taken care of. First off, you have to get permission from your job instructor. Head to the portals sometime, they'll let you go. Also, every time someone fights Zakum for the first time, they get a special reward." Cade said.

"Special reward?" Gath said, more interested now.

"The Alcaster gives it." Cade explained. "The first time anyone fights and defeats Zakum, they're allowed to take a small piece of its destroyed body with them and give it to the Alcaster. He will use it to make you a small item, or infuse a larger item with its powers. This item, the Zakum item, will give you a lot of extra power, and are very good at protection. I got my armor done. Archie got a bracer."

The sniper nodded and showed Gath his arm. On it was a brown guard, covered with strange runes.

"It's very helpful." Archie said. "One of the best reasons to fight Zak-besides treasure."

"Either way, you'll have to choose what this item is when we fight him, so the Alcaster can make you an item."

"Alright." Gath said. "I'll think about it."

Cade pounded him on the back. "Good luck man. I'll see you soon. Archie, always good to see you. Have a nice trip back."

The pair of archer left Cade's house, losing a great deal of mesos, but gaining a great weapon.

* * *

Matthew Travis was calm when he saw his camp, even though it looked quite different than it had when he had left. A small wooden palisade surrounded it now. Guards were posted along it, their eyes searching the nearby forest. Bradford had done a better job reacting to the assault than he had expected. Perhaps…Travis could let him in on the plan.

_Yes…_ he thought. _I can work this to my advantage._

The newly advanced paladin rode his hog through a gap in the wall which served as one of the entrances. He was not challenged on his arrival, and both of the guards saluted. However, Travis had hoped to keep his return quiet. He needed to talk to Bradford.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. One soldier yelled out "Hey! The generals back!" as he passed by. Within seconds hundreds of heads turned to look at him, wondering why he had been gone. Travis gave a quick wave of his hand and they understood that they should leave him alone. However, he would have the entire camp wishing for him to make a speech, to tell them what was going on in the outside world.

Travis got off of his hog and gave the reins to a nearby soldier, who took it to some makeshift stables. Then he continued in, heading straight towards the commander's tent. As he walked in, he saw Bradford sitting behind the desk.

Jamison looked up as Travis entered.

"Hey, glad to see you're back. You wouldn't believe the…what are you doing?" Travis moved around the tent, quickly shutting any openings in the cloth.

"The tent is magically enchanted. Soundproof, with the right precautions. I have some things we made need to talk about in secret." He said, his voice still calm.

"Oh? Well, I have important news." Bradford said, somewhat annoyed by the strange behavior. "As you can see, we improved our defenses while you were gone. We were attacked during your absence, and lost some good soldiers."

"I know." Travis said, keeping the same calm tone. "One question. How do you feel about El Nath?" He said.

"I'm afraid I don't understand…" Bradford said, surprised by the strange question.

"How do you feel about EVs current situation with El Nath?" Travis clarified.

"Well, I can't say I agree with it. Why?" Bradford answered, puzzled.

"…It's time you learned. I need a right-hand man to work with, and you are by far the most worthy candidate." Travis said.

"What?" The white knight asked. He was puzzled by the paladin's behavior. Something strange was going on. Travis walked over and sat down, across the desk from Bradford.

"Well, as you know, it is customary for the commander of a battle group to choose a second-in-command from his colonels within six months. I've chosen you." The paladin stated simply.

"Second-in-command? Me?" Bradford asked.

"Yes, you've proven yourself well. However, taking this position means you'll have to know certain things. It's time you stepped out of the role of a colonel blindly following orders and into that of one of the masterminds behind everything." Travis said. He reminded himself to be careful. His allies in the AC would not approve of this, and he was rushing into this. However, Travis had a hunch that Bradford was the right person, and his hunches were normally right.

"I'm listening" Bradford said.

"Good." Travis replied with a smile. "Will you never tell this information to anyone, unless I tell you to?"

Bradford hesitated, and then nodded in agreement.

"Very well. Let us take a blood oath then." Travis said.

The white knight's eyebrows shot up. The blood oath was the most serious promise one could make. It was used by all of the nations. It was said that if someone violated a blood oath, the gods would kill them. He sat there thinking about it for a minute, and then his curiosity got the better of him.

"Yes. Let's do it." Bradford said.

"Excellent." Travis replied. The paladin took two small cups out, and poured wine into a larger one on the desk. The two looked at each other and nodded.

Using a small knife, Travis slit his wrist. Bradford did the same. The two allowed blood to flow from their veins until the cup was full. Then, using the small amount of healing magic he knew, Travis sealed both of the cuts. The paladin poured the mixture into both of the smaller cups.

"Jamison Bradford, do you swear to never tell anyone of what I am about to tell you?" The paladin said.

"Yes. I swear." The white knight replied.

The two each took one of the cups, and in one smooth motion, drank the whole thing. Bradford sat there for a moment, waiting for Travis to speak. Eventually, he did.

"Alright then. Do you know why we have an alliance with El Nath?" The paladin asked.

"It's because we're afraid of them, right?" Bradford said.

"Yes, exactly." The paladin answered. "However, when the conquer Orbis, which they will, what is to stop them from turning on us?"

"I don't know…" Bradford said. "Nothing?"

"Right again." Travis said. "Absolutely nothing. In one move, they could destroy us and WV. Even together we wouldn't have much of a chance, and we won't convince WV to help us before El Nath attacks us. After they do, I suspect we would be too weak."

"Alright…so how do we beat them?" Bradford asked.

"Obviously, we need more strength. Which is one of the reasons for my recent trip, although becoming a paladin was nice too." He said.

"You're a paladin?" Bradford asked. "So I was right?"

"Yes, you were right." Travis answered. "However, that was not the only reason I left. You see, I managed to help the senate make up their minds, and it's now official. We are going to attack WV."

"We better. They attacked us first!" The white knight exclaimed.

"Well…not really. Those attacks were just groups of mercenaries, hired by my political group, to make it seem as if we were provoked." Travis confessed.

"Wait…you ordered those attacks?" Jamison said.

"Exactly. However, they were necessary for the greater good." The paladin said.

"The greater good? We lost nearly a hundred!" Bradford was angry, and his voice rose.

"Calm down. Without that attack, we would have ceased to exist as a nation. I've already told you that we will be destroyed if we do nothing. We have to act." Travis said, still calm.

"Matt, you can't just attack your own side!" Bradford yelled.

"I don't unless necessary." Travis said. "As I explained, we are now at war with WV, but they don't know it."

"And how the hell will going to war help us survive?" Bradford demanded.

"I was getting to that." Travis said. "So, if we can't win now, we need more resources to win."

"It won't work if we get half our army killed doing it!" Jamison said, still upset.

"Which is why we aren't going to let that happen. We are going to win, quickly and decisively." Travis said.

"With that big-ass wall in the way?" Jamison said.

"Hettinger's Wall? We fear it far too much. A powerful strike at the right area will break straight through it, and then we will have WV. Moving swiftly, we can take over before their army comes." Travis explained.

"Yeah? And what happens when their army does come?" The white knight demanded.

"We join forces with them. I will do my best to keep as many of our own and theirs alive throughout the fighting. Then, we will reach their capital of Lith, and I will explain all of this to their leaders. And I will persuade them to forget the past, and to ally themselves with us. And then…we will destroy El Nath." The paladin calmly explained.

"Join forces with them? After fighting a war? What's the point? Why not tell them now?" Bradford asked.

"Because," Travis explained. "They will not believe us. They will think it's a trap. After having the ability to destroy them and not using that ability, we can gain their trust. I can gain their trust."

"Alright, but what will the senate think of this?" Bradford said.

"I have allies in the senate. I will reach Lith first, and ally with WV. If the other senators don't like it…we can deal with them." Travis said.

"You mean you plan to kill the entire senate?" Bradford asked, surprised again.

"If necessary." Matthew said.

"No, that's it. I'm not going to take part in this deluded scheme." Jamison said, shaking his head. He started to walk out.

"Wait." Travis said. "Why did you join the EV military?" He asked. Jamison turned around.

"I wanted to protect EV. Killing the senate does not fit with that idea." He said coldly.

"Bradford, I wouldn't be doing this if I thought there was another way. Keeping EV around is why I'm here. It's my job to do my best to make sure EV is still here when I'm gone. And I am going to do my best to do that job well." Travis said solemnly. "Help me, Jamison. I can't do this alone."

The white knight stood there motionless for a while, deep in thought. Finally, he walked back over and sat down.

"Do you really think this is the only way?" He asked, his voice soft, almost a whisper.

"Yes. I do." Travis replied.

"Well then. I'm in." Bradford said. He shook his head, thinking he must be crazy.

"Good." Travis said. He started to explain the plan.

"So, we need to beat WV quickly and decisively. Unfortunately, there's the wall in our way. I don't think it's as big of an obstacle as some think, but it won't be easy."

"That's very true." Bradford answered. "How do you plan to get past? Even if it's not as big of a threat as some say, it's near suicide to attack with our forces."

"I was hoping you'd ask that question." Travis said with a smile. "Tell me, how are things going with our dear friend Nicholas West?"

"He's approached me a few times; I've talked to him for a bit." Bradford answered.

"Does he trust you?" Travis asked.

"Yeah. Probably. Depends what I need to tell him." Jamison answered.

"You need to let a small detail slip. We begin marching today. When we stop, talk to him. Let him know that no one except me knows where we're headed, but our orders are in a sealed file. I always keep that file in my tent." Travis said.

"That's it?" Bradford asked.

"Yes."

"So, what does the file _really_ contain?" He asked, curious.

"Orders. Fake orders. They say that we are going back to Ellina, and that we will then use El Nath's navy to join the fight in Orbis. The plan is that WV will act on this, and pull out of Hettinger's wall. They will go to their ports and ready their ships to leave. Then, we strike." Travis explained.

"I like it." The white knight answered. "However, what if they decide to attack us while our army is apparently gone?"

"They will not. WV is smart; they know a conflict will not help either of us in the long run-unless we become allies as a result." The paladin said.

"I can do that. Why not try to attack by sea?" He inquired.

"I wish we could. The network of forts would be even easier to get by than the wall. However, it's not my decision. Glen Corven was put in command of it all. Besides, El Nath refuses to let us use their navy, saying they do not condone this action." Travis explained. "If we win too quickly, we could be too strong by the time they reach Orbis. They don't want that. They want a long war."

"Alright. I'll get going then." Bradford said, getting up.

"Yes, and I have a speech to give. It's time to move." The commander said.

* * *

Roy Andrews walked through the grounds behind Hettinger's wall. The third division was currently training hard, even though it was getting late. The entire WV military was on high alert. No one knew why, and Roy had been angry about it for a while. However, as he watched over his unit, he had to admit there was something beautiful about it. His battalion worked with great efficiency. Even the two weeks of training they had gotten were worth something.

Their marching and riding was executed perfectly, a model in the third division. The second battalion was almost all warriors, and was considered a hybrid unit. Their mounts were specially trained and used while they were helpful, and ditched when they weren't. They second battalion would charge in on hogs and silver manes and dismount after the initial impact. Mounts could be quite useful for charges, but were a hindrance in close combat. After the charge, their trained mounts would retreat behind the front lines, although they stayed close and ready to carry their riders to a different area of the battlefield.

A bishop was assisting with the practice, summoning waves of dummies in tight formation. The riders charged some throwing ranged weapons from a distance first, and impacted. Then, they would dismount and continue their assault.

The hybrid unit had been created specifically for use in the third division, although it had spread elsewhere in the WV military. The idea was to abandon the old concept of 'hammer and anvil' tactics and start to focus on the actual front line fighting. The previous plans had just used the front lines to hold an enemy in place until the cavalry could get around them and strike.

A full fifty riders charged towards a vast line of dummies, their mounts carrying them at high speeds. First, there was the initial charge. Suddenly, the front line seemed to explode. Huge blasts shook the earth, annihilating any of the poor constructs in their path. A huge gap was formed, and Roy's marauders were quickly substituted for empty space. It worked fairly well in practice. This tactic was one of Roy's favorite, and his first choice to use anywhere. Teamwork was a great thing to have during a battle, but this tactic shattered formations. Without their nice little groups, many enemies were helpless, and could be easily defeated in duels. Andrews also drilled his soldiers in these, making sure they were competent. In fact, Roy had a duel planned for himself soon.

At Roy's level, there were few who could challenge him. Amanda Deyrose was a skilled Ice and Lightning archmage. Ice formed from her powerful wand could spear and kill anyone in her way. Thankfully, the leader of all mages in the third division was kind. Although Roy, being a fourth classer, had been offered positions of similar importance, he never took them. As he had to control a larger group of troops with these promotions, it meant he could not fight on the battlefield as much.

As if on cue, he saw Amanda leave the group of mages she was with and walk over.

"Hey Roy. Your group looks pretty solid." Amanda said. She had long black hair, and her attunement to ice magic had caused a slight physical change. Her eyes, once blue, had turned a little bit lighter as the years went by, and were a mix of blue and white. They looked exactly like the ice she wielded with such mastery.

"Thanks." He turned towards her. "So, you're ready for that duel?"

"You're so impatient." She said. "I thought I'd see how you're doing. After all, mages can't do much without front lines to protect them."

"Oh? Speaking of which, I thought that my battalion was supposed to get another support healer. We've been one short for a while." He said. Although there was some inter-class rivalry in the third division, at the end of the day everyone realized they needed to work together.

"Need some more healing? Well clerics don't like to be ordered to heal all the time. I'm not sure that any are too interested in helping you out." She answered.

"Come on, Amanda, it's what they signed up for." He said, half-joking. Roy had known Amanda since they were both young.

"All right, I'll _try_ to convince _one._" She answered, a smile on her face. Her tone made it obvious doing so wouldn't be a problem.

The two of them stood watching Roy's battalion practice for a few more minutes.

"Well?" Roy finally asked. "You ready now?"

Amanda sighed. "Alright then…if you can't wait. I guarantee one thing though. You'll never be ready for me." She walked off towards a small dueling arena.

Roy gave a short cry of indignation, and then followed. He summoned the bishop over. Without him there, his unit stopped training and went over to watch the duel.

The two combatants readied their weapons, staring across the circular arena, waiting for the signal. The bishop raised his staff, and then lowered it, signaling the start of the duel.

Within seconds, a spike made out of ice was sent towards Roy. He rolled out of the way, sheathing his Dragon Faltizan as he did so.

As he came out of the roll, he grabbed another spear from the large sheath on his back. This one was a Serpent's Tongue, and was useful for ranged attacks. However, as he drew the spear, another cold beam was on the way. He knocked it aside with his spear, and quickly dove to the ground as a bolt of lightning was issued from Amanda's wand.

Roy quickly rolled out of the way of another blast, picking himself up. As he finally had a free second, he pressed his advantage, lobbing the spear towards the archmage. Without a though, Amanda summoned a magical barrier. The guard easily blocked the spear, but the distraction gave Andrews time to draw his Faltizan and charge his opponent. He thrust the spear at Amanda, the front of spear flashing with blue light. The strange light turned into a dragon's head as he attacked.

Unfazed by the new development, Amanda side-stepped the attack and summoned another guard where she had stood a second ago. The dark knight's attack easily shattered it, but a flash of light was issued from the impact. Roy's vision was blocked for a second, and in this second, Amanda stuck her foot out.

Andrews tripped over the obstacle, but caught himself as he fell. Pushing off the ground with his hand, he used the momentum to launch himself into the air. The tactic prevented him from being hit by the next lightning bolt, and he landed on his feet.

"Come on" Roy said. "You'll have to do better than that."

"Oh, I'm just getting started." Amanda said.

"Oh really?" Roy replied. "Show me what you can do all out then."

"Gladly." Amanda answered.

She raised her wand and summoned a huge chunk of ice in the sky. Roy stared at it, ready for the assault. Amanda sent it towards earth, but Roy easily dodged.

"Come on, that's nothing." He said. Amanda frowned, trying to think of how best to fight her opponent.

The dark knight charged again, anticipating his opponent's next tactic. He had guessed right. When the warrior was close, Amanda sent a spray of ice outward, hoping to freeze him. However, Roy leapt into the air and cleared the ice. He thrust his spear towards her again. Amanda was able to act quickly though, and at the last second, her wand transformed into a spear made entirely of energy.

She knocked the Faltizan aside, and hit Roy with the back of the spear. Momentarily stunned, the dark knight was unable to block the next strike. Amanda drove the spear into his shoulder.

Roy grabbed the thunder spear and pulled it out of his body, taking two steps back and readying himself again.

"Not bad…not bad" He said.

"Thanks." Amanda answered, the spear transforming back into the familiar wand.

Roy decided to renew his assault, and charged towards her. Deciding to use the spear again, Amanda attempted to block his attack. However, the attack was a feint. As she moved her spear to block it, Andrews swung his weapon around, wielding it like a staff. The attack hit the archmage in her side. It wasn't particularly strong, but Roy was able to press his advantage. He moved his foot directly behind Amanda's, and used the momentum to trip her. Roy gripped his spear again and held it to her neck.

"Looks like I win" He said.

"Nope. You forgot the first rule." Amanda said.

"What?" Roy asked, momentarily puzzled. Then, it hit him.

"Don't hesitate." She said.

A bolt of lightning blasted out of her wand, slamming Roy in the center of his chest. The dark knight was thrown into the air, landing ten feet away.

Roy slowly got up and saw Amanda standing there, perfectly fine. His armor was cracked at his chest from the force of the impact, but he had not sustained too much damage.

"That's a dirty trick." He said.

"Yeah. Anything goes in a battle, remember?" Amanda said.

She sent a flurry of ice towards him. Swinging his spear towards each one, Roy managed to destroy them. His opponent had merely used them as a distraction. As the dark knight suddenly noticed, there was a huge shadow over which he stood, quickly getting smaller.

"Oh shit" He said, diving away from a huge piece of ice. However, he was not quick enough, and found himself pinned by it.

"Too bad." Amanda said. "You almost had me that time"

Lightning crackled at the tip of her wand, and then she stopped the attack from forming.

"I won't make any more work for our nice bishop." She said, and at her command the ice melted.

Roy got up. "Good job that time." He said.

"Thanks. And I'll see what I can do about a cleric." She answered, walking away.

Roy shook his head, both mad that he had lost and impressed by her abilities.

* * *

Night had fallen on the fifth battle group's camp. Jamison Bradford had just finished setting up his camp, when, fortunately for him, Nicholas West came over. It was time to do his job, to plant the seed.

Bradford was still unsure about the level of violence that they would need in order to fulfill the plan, but Travis had convinced him that it was the only way. They had to give it a shot.

"Um, sir?" The hermit said, walking over.

"Yes?" Bradford asked.

"Could I talk to you?" West asked, feigning nervousness.

"Well, sure." Bradford replied. "Come on into my tent."

The white knight led the way, and Jenreau, posing as West, followed.

"What can I do for you?" The white knight asked.

"Well, you see…I just thought it was strange that we were marching." The hermit said.

"It's the army. What's so strange about marching?" Bradford asked.

"Well, I didn't think we'd march unless something important was happening." The hermit clarified.

"Oh, we march a lot even when nothing is happening. It makes it harder for our enemies to find us." Bradford said.

"So were not going to be fighting?" West asked.

"Well, we can't be certain of that. Hell, no one knows where we are most of the time when we stop. Only the commander." Jamison said.

"So not even the second-in-command?" Nicholas asked. Travis had announced Bradford's new position during his speech that day.

"No, not even me." Bradford smiled. "Don't worry about it though."

"Is there anyway we could know if something was going to happen?" The hermit asked.

"Not that I know of. The orders get sent to the commander, and he keeps them in his tent. No one else sees them. Don't worry. Travis will let us know when we need to know." The colonel said, 'accidentally' letting the information slip.

"Oh…all right then." West said. He left the tent.

_Well, my job is done. _Bradford thought. _Time to see if Travis was right._

_

* * *

_

_So, the plans are in the commander's tent, and we're marching…we need those plans!_ Elliot Jenreau thought. He had made his plan, and was going to carry it out that very night. Simple enough, really. Sneak in, steal some plans, and run to Munro. Then come back and act like nothing happened.

He stayed up, pretending to be asleep on his cot. Finally, he decided he had given it enough time. It was probably one in the morning, after all.

The hermit blended in with the darkness, and he managed to conceal himself farther with the technique of dark sight. He silently left the tent, and headed towards the larger one of the commander.

Now on the move, Travis had decided to lower the number of guards. There were few people watching, and none could see him. Jenreau confidently strolled right up to Travis' tent. Pushing the flap aside, he walked in.

The commander was sleeping on a cot in the center of the room, a huge mace beside him. Making sure to keep quiet, Jenreau began to search. The desk was first. He found a wealth of documents on top of it, but not the file he wanted. Then, the hermit started to look through other stacks of paper on the floor. Still nothing.

Undaunted, he continued his meticulous search. After half an hour and countless glances towards the commander's sleeping form, he found what he was looking for. A file. He opened it and scanned the contents. Yes, this was exactly what he wanted. He smiled and left the tent.

_That was easy._ He thought to himself. Unfortunately, he was mistaken. Seconds after he left, Matthew Travis appeared at the opening of the tent, mace drawn.

"STOP RIGHT THERE." He yelled, malice on his face. Jenreau ignored him and sprinted towards the edge of the camp.

"Guards! Stop him!" Travis yelled, heading after Jenreau. Within seconds, Jenreau saw heads poke out of their tents, and bodies with weapons followed, heading towards him. The hermit ran as fast as he could, but he wasn't sure he could make it.

Suddenly, a soldier appeared right in front of him, sword raised.

"Oh shit." Jenreau said. But then, the soldier had a huge cut in his side and had fallen over. Munro was standing over him.

"Let's go." The chief bandit said. "Lenore has hogs stolen and ready to use."

Jenreau didn't question the orders, and the pair ran, Elliot sending out short bursts of stars and Munro doing the same with mesos, the latter exploding near anyone who got close. Nevertheless, they couldn't hold off all of their enemies. More knights came, and the pair found themselves surrounded.

"So…a spy." Travis said as he walked up. "Disgraceful."

"I hear you're pretty smart." Munro said. "However, you made a mistake."

"What?" Travis asked, knowing exactly what that mistake was.

Munro answered by acting. He threw a handful of mesos towards part of the ring, and they exploded upon getting near. Meanwhile, Jenreau used the technique of flash jump to propel himself through the air and over the ring. Munro ran out of it through his newly created hole.

"Damn it!" Travis yelled. "Get them! They have our plans!" By this point, the whole camp was awake and heading to cut off the two thieves. However, this was the end of the chase. At the edge of the camp, a priestess waited with three hogs. The thieves jumped onto them and rode away, quickly escaping.

Travis shook his head in disgust. "Fuck." He said. "We're in trouble now." However, he flashed Bradford a subtle smile as he said this.

* * *

"Well…this is…big." Cody Frazer, the CIC of WV said. He was staring at the report Gath had handed him.

Right after Munro, Ross, and Jenreau had escaped, they went back to their HQ as fast as possible, and Munro had given Gath the report. Now, Cody had called a meeting of all the major people in WV, to look at options. Munro was there as well.

"We have a report taken right from the EV military that says exactly what they are going to do. I commend Gath Enders and our spies for finding this information. Now, however, the responsibility falls on us."

He pointed at a map that dominated the table. "As you can see, this will be the effect of these orders." He said, moving tokens that represented battle groups in the EV military.

"This shows all of their military heading towards Ellina, pulling back. Something like this has never happened before. Not only that, but the orders expand on this. According to the stolen report, the plan is to head to Orbis. El Nath is going to add their airships to EV's forces. It will be enough to transport a sizeable force. At the same time, they will transport other parts of their army to join El Nath's in Orbis Tower." Frazer said.

"I say our actions are obvious. We go to support Orbis immediately. They need the help." One man said. He was a warrior of some type.

"Oh? So when we finally get a chance to hit EV and rule the continent, you choose to pass it up? This is what we've been waiting for!" A mage said.

"You're both forgetting something obvious." A third person said, this one a woman, and some kind of thief. "Do you really think EV will proceed with the same plans after they know we have them?"

"This Travis guy is going to be in a lot of trouble." The mage said.

"Yes, but how do we know that they won't try to bluff? They know that we have their document, and thus might expect them to change plans, so they might use those same plans anyway!" The warrior said.

"Yes, that's possible." The thief said. "But I'd expect them to change their plans but make them achieve the same effect."

"Exactly!" The warrior exclaimed. "So, as before, I say we must support Orbis."

What if they expect us to do this, so they attack us instead?" The mage asked.

"Enough." Frazer said. "So you're telling me there's as much guesswork involved even after we have their plans, because they know we have their plans?"

"Yes, pretty much." The reply came from the thief.

"Well…" Gath said, finally deciding to speak. "EV is methodical. I'd guess that they won't change their plans just because we know them. Eastern Victorians are proud, and think they're better than us. Most Easterners say we only survive because of the wall. They might throw some new tricks into the plan, but they won't be big."

"So, they'll still try to move towards Orbis?" Cody asked.

"Yes." Gath said. "Although the plan might change a bit. For example, they could leave more units here to prevent us from attacking, or change the routes that their ships are taking."

"And you're sure about this?" Frazer asked.

"It's the most likely possibility. I think we should plan accordingly." Gath replied.

"Alright, so that's resolved. We'll expect them to head to Orbis." He said.

"And while they're gone, we can conquer EV!" The mage said.

"If they don't change the amounts or locations of their remaining forces, that's a great idea." The warrior spoke again. "However, this is quite unlikely."

"So? We can still press the advantage!" The mage's voice rose with enthusiasm.

"And doom our only allies." The reply came quickly. "We can't fight off all of EV's army combined with El Nath's, even with Victoria. We may win short-term, but we won't last."

"I agree." Said Cody. "Send out orders. I want all units except for token forces to be pulled out. They will congregate at Lith. Once there, we will board the ships. Meanwhile, send a copy of the report to Orbis."

"But-" the mage began,

"No. This is the course we are going to take. End of story" Cody said, getting up. "Dismissed".

* * *

"So, we're finally moving out then…" Roy Andrews said, his Faltizan catching the evening sun.

"Yeah. Guess so." The archmage replied.

Hettinger's wall, although made for war, was peaceful at this time. The fourth-classers were elevated high above the ground and had a great view of the forest and sunset. However, although Roy was transfixed by the scene, Amanda wasn't watching. She was lying on her back, staring up at the sun.

"Finally. We joined the military for this. Now we get to fight, do what we've trained for…" Roy said.

"You only joined the military because you wanted to fight?" Amanda questioned.

"Among other things." He quickly tried to defend himself.

"Right." She answered sarcastically.

"Sucks that we have to leave last though." The dark knight exclaimed.

"Someone has to." She replied. "Why care? We're close to Lith anyway. We'll get there at the same time as everyone else."

"I guess so. I wonder what made them decide to send us off to Orbis…" He said.

"It's about time. That's what I say." Amanda replied. She had wanted to support their allies a long time ago. The pair stayed out on the wall, quietly talking deep into the night.

* * *

"It's time. Trebuchets are set. Wheel 'em in."

The fifth battle group's war machines moved on the order. It was only few days after their arrival, and they were ready. Travis was proud. The war, his war, was going to begin.

It was dark, nearly eleven, when they began their assault. The trebuchets had been modified to use wheels, so that they could be moved out of the forest and be built in secret. The huge machines would have their wheels removed once they had reached their destination.

Travis followed them out of the forest. He had taken command of two other battle groups for the assault, after defeating their commanders in duels. Now, it was time.

* * *

"Did you hear something?" Roy asked.

"No…why?" Amanda asked.

"Nevermind. It must have been nothing." Andrews said.

* * *

Travis had been allowed to lead the main assault. He would break through soon, hopefully tonight. Half an hour later, the trebuchets were ready, awaiting his orders. The operators couldn't see him in the darkness, but they would hear him.

"READY…FIRE!" He yelled. The strings were cut and twenty separate arms swung around, launching boulders towards the wall.

"Ok, now _that_ was something…" Roy said. His eyes scanned the horizon, although it was too dark to see much. Then, he saw everything.

"Amanda! Watch out!" Roy dove towards the grounds second before the first impact hit. Boulders rained down on the battlements, slamming into the old wood.

"Looks like our commanders were wrong. The attack is here!" The dark knight quickly swung down, climbing a ladder. A large jump took him the rest of the distance.

"Second battalion! Mount up! Let's go!" He yelled. Hundreds of soldiers rushed out of the tents in their camp behind the wall, some gathering equipment, others climbing up to defend the wall. Amanda was on top of the structure, blasting boulders out of the sky.

* * *

"Set fire to the boulders!" Travis yelled. Now, it was time to go all out. The next round of boulders was coated in oil and were lit before being fired. Hopefully, the flames would start some fires on the wooden wall.

The plan had gone well so far, except there seemed to be some sort of mage on top of the wall trying to repel the attack. One mage wouldn't be enough though.

* * *

A few minutes later, the fifth battalion was ready. Not only them, but almost the entire division was as well. Roy, however, would lead the charge. The gates swung open, and the mass of soldiers charged towards their opponent.

"Alright, use the tactic we've been working on! Create chaos!" Roy directed.

* * *

_Hmm…interesting _Travis thought. They were charging. He drew his mace.

"Ready for impact! Let's go! Protect the trebuchets; they will reduce that wall to rubble with enough time!" He ordered.

* * *

Roy's silver mane accelerated under his direction. In seconds, the fight would begin. He grabbed an extra spear from his back and flung it at the enemy once they were in range. _Impact._ The two sides met in a flurry of attacks. Powerful attacks utilizing all forms of weapons came from both sides. There was chaos. Roy loved it. Quickly, just as he had planned, the two sides had gone from two lines to groups of duelists. Roy defeated many. Few were a match for him.

The first seconds of the battle did not bode well for Travis, or EV. His line was quickly split up.

"Get back in formation! Come on!" He yelled, slamming another soldier aside with his mace.

Roy proceeded to his destination: One of the trebuchets. His Faltizan moved quickly, cutting down those by it. Then, once it was clear, he attacked the machine. His spear sheared through one of the sides, and the whole structure came toppling over.

* * *

WV had driven deep. A few minutes after the first strike, and a few trebuchets were already down. Travis had retreated a bit, waiting for messengers to bring him important reports and controlling the battlefield. One such messenger ran up to him.

"Sir! We've lost five trebuchets already, but the rest are still firing. The leader of the enemy forces seems to be a dark knight. He's destroyed two of the five himself. Are solders are running when they see him!" The messenger explained.

"Very well. Seems I've found a worthy opponent…" Travis said, walking towards the battlefield.

* * *

Roy slashed again, thrust again…and then the machine fell. His third trebuchet in ten minutes. Then, he saw a figure approach him, holding a mace.

_Now this could be interesting…_ he readied himself for a duel.

The paladin moved first, rushing towards his opponent. Travis' mace was glowing. He brought it around, attacking Andrews. Andrews quickly moved his spear, blocking the assault.

"Hey there." The dark knight said. "What's up?" The paladin did not answer, replying with another swing. Roy easily caught the mace again, and then thrust his spear towards Travis. The paladin dodged the attack.

"Aren't talkative, are you?" Roy asked. "Huh. Well this could be fun."

Travis was silent again. He rushed his opponent, swinging the mace as if to hit Roy's head. Andrews moved his spear to block it, but at the last second Travis changed the attack's direction. The mace swung towards Roy's right. However, the dark knight dropped to the ground, dodging it. He then rolled to his left and got up.

"Nice try. You'll have to do better than that." He said.

Andrews moved in close now. Wielding his spear like a staff, he swung it towards Travis. The paladin managed to block it, but couldn't attack. Roy was too close for the large mace.

The dark knight smiled in satisfaction. He slammed his elbow into the paladin's chest, stunning him for a moment. Then, his left fist came around and caught Travis in the face. His left elbow quickly followed, hitting the paladin again and knocking him over.

Roy tried to drive his spear through Travis' body, but it was knocked away by a swift mace. The paladin then attacked. Although he was prone, the attack caught his opponent by surprise and knocked him over. The two combatants both got up, each waiting for the other to act.

The paladin moved first, charging towards the dark knight. Now angered, he didn't waste time on feints and swung hard. Roy kept his cool and slipped under the attack. Then, the dark knight counterattacked and his spear drove into the paladin's leg. Travis gave a roar of pain and quickly struck back. Surprised at actually getting a successful hit, Roy was not ready and the mace slammed into his side, throwing the dark knight several feet.

Travis was quick to press his advantage, but Roy managed to regain his footing before the paladin reached him. The two weapons clashed together several more times, neither side gaining an advantage, until Travis stepped away to rethink his tactics.

Roy, however, attacked immediately. His Faltizan rushed towards Travis, the head of it glowing a deep blue as it did.

The paladin quickly summoned a shield of mana. The dark knight's attack blasted the guard away, but was significantly weakened, and Travis was able to knock the spear aside. However, now at close range, Roy continued his assault.

He thrust his spear towards Travis' right, and anticipated his opponent's guard.

Using his bare hands again, the dark knight punched Travis in the face again. The paladin's head shot back from the force of the blow, and while he was stunned Roy attacked again, slamming his spear into the paladin's chest.

Angered and now in significant pain, Travis swiftly counterattacked. Driven by anger, a flurry of blows rained down on the dark knight. Although Travis left himself open multiple times, Roy was tired from the fight and unable to take advantage. Finally, a lucky blow hit the dark knight and sent him to the ground. Travis raised his mace, ready for the finishing blow. However, Roy acted too quickly. There was a quick flash of gold as he swung his spear, and Travis had his feet taken out from under him.

Now wounded, the two warriors got up yet again. At the same moment, they rushed towards each other. The two weapons, mace and spear, slammed into each other yet again. However, Roy had been waiting for this to happen. He used the jagged edge of his spear to catch his opponent's hilt. Controlling the paladin's weapon, he ripped it out of Travis' hands. Now unarmed, Travis slowly stepped backward, a look of surprise on his face. The paladin was staring only at the spear that Roy wielded as the dark knight approached him.

"Well, that's it then. You've been great." Roy said with a smile.

"It's not over yet." A voice came from nearby. Andrews saw a man standing there, a battle hammer in his right hand and a shield in his left.

"Oh, I gotta fight you too? I don't have time for second raters." Roy said.

"I'm not. Bring it." The man said.

"Bradford…don't try it." Travis said. "I lost."

"Damn right you did." Roy said. Suddenly, he rushed towards Travis, spear raised. There was a flash of blue, but before the spear hit its target, Andrews was hit in the chest by a mace.

"It's over when you beat me." Bradford said, standing between the two.

"Get outta here. Or I'll make you leave." Andrews said.

"No." Bradford answered.

Suddenly, the dark knight's spear flashed with blue energy. He slammed it into the ground and roared as he did. Bradford's eyes opened wide for a split second before the white knight was thrown twenty feet by the shockwave.

"No one to save you now." The dark knight said. However, while the white knight had distracted Andrews, Travis had managed to retrieve his mace.

"Ready for round two?" The paladin said.

"Retreat! Retreat! We've lost!" A voice yelled out from the eastern side.

Realizing what was going on, Travis quickly fled the scene.

"We'll finish this later!" The paladin yelled.

Roy glared at him, then slowly started walking back to the wall and assembling his unit. _That paladin, whoever he is, is a damn coward._ He thought as he slowly did so. However, he wasn't sure if the duel would ever be finished. WV had won the first engagement, and now EV had lost the element of surprise. They had done well.


	5. Consequences

A/N: So, I'm sorry this chapter took me so long, I've had a lot of other stuff going on. i also apologize because it's not the most exciting chapter. It does, however, include many things necessary for the plot. I've tried to keep it short so it doesn't get too boring. So, read, review, and let me know what you think.

* * *

"We've been hit along Hettinger's Wall in four different locations. There are two breaches, but we are keeping the battlefield close to the walls for now. Gath, do you mind explaining what the fuck just happened?" Cody Frazer demanded, pacing around the HQ.

"…Alright." Gath said. "I have no idea. The reports must have been wrong, or false. I'm sorry."

"You better be pretty damn sorry!" Cody yelled. I've got the entire military rushing back towards their original positions, which YOU told us to vacate! This is entirely your fault!" He ranted.

"I'm sorry. We had inaccurate information. Right now, I suggest we move to fix this mistake…" Gath said.

"No. I'm sorry, but we can't do that. This is the biggest slip-up ever. I'm sorry Gath. I like you, but your methods didn't work, and we will just have to find someone else. You are no longer the Head of Spies." A hint of disappointment found its way into Frazer's voice.

Gath stared at the ground for a few moments. It wasn't surprising, but…

"Alright. I understand. I'll leave." He said, dejected.

"Not just like that." Cody said. "You signed a contract. The military has you for three more years. And you're going to help fix this. You will report to the fifth division no later than three tomorrow."

Gath said nothing, just nodded.

"Dismissed." Cody said, and Gath exited.

* * *

"…This is NOT going according to plan." Seneca mused. He was in a small meeting room. Eckhart and a woman, Kate Lyynhall, were present.

"Hey, what do you want us to do?" Eckhart asked. "It's not our fault that EV went crazy."

"…Eckhart, you are still young and foolish. See beyond the obvious." Seneca said.

"What? I don't understand…" Eckhart replied.

"Well, remember what I taught you. Observe my demeanor, other things about the room; take what you know about me…" He offered instruction.

Eckhart spent a few seconds lost in thought, before he put the pieces together. "Kate…you had something to do with controlling EV?" He asked. The woman nodded, staying silent.

"Good work…good work…" Seneca said. "I wouldn't put something into our plan without having some degree of control. However, Kate here has failed to control them successfully."

"It's not my fault. Some hotshot, Matthew Travis, overpowered our contacts." The woman said.

"…Failure is a part of life. I would not expect that the plan would go off without a hitch." Seneca said.

"Alright, damage control then. We want neither side to win until after we capture Orbis. So, we've got to prolong the war." Eckhart said.

"Good, good." Seneca said. "So: Ideas?"

"Well, we obviously have to help WV out. Travis may be young, but he's proven to be a master at manipulation. They retreated all their armed forces soon before the attack, and EV was easily able to break through Hettinger's Wall." Kate said. "Travis himself didn't break through, but there were multiple other breaches. Two, to be exact. EV has poured through these. WV has done a good job keeping them bottled up, but EV will be able to break through to the heartlands soon. When that happens, they'll win, as WV relies on the wall for defense, and has a much smaller military."

"Right." Eckhart said. "So, we've got to send them help somehow. Military advisors, assassination attempts, create discord in EV…"

"All good ideas." Seneca said. "However, we need something big, something that changes the course of this war NOW. And it needs to be a secret."

"Well then…" Eckhart began. "We've got to cut the head off of the snake. Travis is their kingpin. Take him out, the entire offensive crumbles."

"That's not going to work." Kate said. "It's a good idea, but at this point, Travis doesn't need to sell the idea to the senate. They smell victory, they aren't going to stop."

"We could try to create a small team, and send them in to mess up orders." Eckhart said.

"I'm ahead of you on that one." Seneca replied. "The team is already set up. Actually, there are multiple teams, of our best. They're going to do the best they can to mess up the EV effort. Cut off supplies, capture orders and send false ones in their place, that kind of thing. What I'm looking for, specifically, is something that the two of you can do. Maybe a few more members on your team, but that's the idea."

"Well, we should get moving now, then." Eckhart said. "We aren't going to figure anything out here, we need to get an inside view of what's happening before we can create a good plan. I say the two of us head in, and become military advisors. We have teams who can create false identities for us; pretend we're veterans of the Aqua Road war or something. We've lived in WV for a while, want to help out. They'll want all the help they can get. Once we're in, we'll make a plan and let you know."

"Can't argue with that." Kate said.

"…Ok then. It's your call. I'll get those identities created fast, and then you can get to work. Remember, you're just there to prolong the war. If WV starts winning, tip the tides again. We want destructive, meaningless conflict. And we want it to last a long time." Seneca said.

"Sounds good to me." Eckhart said. "We'll come back in a few hours to go over the details one more time, and then we'll be off."

"Right. I'll get a ship prepped too. See you then." Seneca said.

The trio disbanded, each heading their separate ways, now with a plan.

* * *

"…Well, that wasn't a bad start." Bradford said, walking through their camp with Travis.

"We lost the engagement." Travis answered. "I'd say that's pretty bad."

"True, true. However, we made two breaches in the wall. Just because we aren't at the center of the advance doesn't mean it's not happening. What are our orders?" He asked brightly.

"Our orders are to break through this wall. However, it seems that they have a fairly elite group compared to ours. I'm our only fourth-classer, while they have many." Travis said.

"Well, WV always preferred quality over quantity." Bradford answered. "Do you think we can take the wall?"

"No." Travis answered. "I'd like to, but it seems impossible to me. We had weeks of planning time and the element of surprise, and we still lost. This isn't a fight we can win."

"Doesn't sound like you believe that" Bradford stated.

"…Yeah. I don't. Any battle is winnable, if you do something crazy enough." Travis said.

"Like what?" Bradford asked.

"Well, you're never going to win by doing the same thing when it's failing. Our first assault failed, so we have to change something up if we're going to win." Travis said.

"Obviously. Why don't we just leave and head to the other breaches? It's not like we need another hole here, and then we could be a part of everything." Bradford said.

"Good idea."

"Sir!" a soldier said, running up to Travis. "They're attacking! What are our orders?"

"What? An attack?" Travis said. "Get into lines! Get ready to defend!" He yelled.

At that moment, a cavalry charge burst out of the trees behind them. Travis grabbed his mace and knocked a few opponents off their mounts, but the attack carried too much weight and burst into the camp. Within seconds, the two-pronged attack had decimated nearly all of their battle group.

Travis, noting the danger, gave a quick whistle. A second later, his mount, a silver boar, ran up to him.

"Jump on!" He called to Bradford. The white knight obeyed.

Travis pounded the ground with his mace, creating a field of light that blasted opponents into the air. The path now clear, the two escaped, riding as fast as they could.

* * *

Archie Lamont was bored. Ever since the impact, most of his friends and acquaintances had been fighting in the war. Some stupid, dumb, war. There really was no need for nations. After all, most people didn't even care. All they caused were destruction and strife. A world without nations would be far better, and far safer.

"Hey, Archie." Gath said, walking through Mushroom Park towards him.

"Gath." Archie replied.

"I just wanted to let you know, I'm headed towards the fifth division. Combat." He said.

"Screw fucking combat." Archie answered.

Gath raised his eyebrows. "Oh? Against the war, then?"

"Hell yes! Why should we waste our time fighting each other? There are monsters out there to be killed, glory to be had fighting Zakum or Horntail, and we're all messed up with this shit!" Archie said.

"Hey, calm down." Gath said.

"It's too late for that. I tried to get you to come back to reality, but it just didn't work. I'm sorry Gath, but it's your own fault for getting tangled up in this." Archie said. "Now, WV is fucked, and EV will most likely burn everything when they get here."

"It's certainly possible." Gath said. "I wish it weren't that way."

"Then why'd you join the goddamn military?" Archie said. "Don't give me that money crap, there's more than enough money in good, old-fashioned monster killing."

"I'm sorry, Archie. But some things are more important than that." He said.

"Well, this isn't. Now, I've got nothing to do. Cade had to cancel the Zakum run because he's messed up in all this too." Archie answered.

"Well, organize your own then." Gath said. "There must be others like you, you can find a group."

"Yeah. Right." Archie replied. "You want to know why Cade is in the military?"

"Well, I don't really…" Gath began.

"His dad made him. Because it was a 'tradition' to serve a country that shouldn't even be there in the first place. Ten years. He has to stay there for ten years, otherwise he loses everything." Archie explained.

"That sucks." Gath said.

"Exactly. Countries tear everything apart. Like Aqua Road, twelve years ago." Archie said.

"Yeah, that was bad." Gath admitted.

"And Orbis now. Wars wouldn't exist if there weren't any countries, Gath." Archie explained.

"That's true. There also wouldn't be any education system." He said.

"That's crap. The job instructors used to run schools, for those who cared." Archie replied.

"Alright, fine. But I signed a contract too, and I need to stay there for three more years." Gath said, now angry.

"And now, they can fucking conscript me." Archie complained.

"Alright Archie, I get it. The military, nations, they all suck. But that doesn't change anything. I still have to fight, whether I want to or not." Gath said.

"Yeah. Or you could leave." Archie said.

"What?" Gath asked.

"Just...leave. Walk out and never come back. They don't pay you, so what. You'll be fine." He said.

"Archie, this is about protecting ourselves. I know you don't like nations, but they're a fact of life. Another fact is that if we don't stop EV now, we'll be in serious trouble." Gath said.

"What, they sent you here to recruit me? I'm not joining" Archie said.

"No. I came to say goodbye. In case I die." Gath simply stated.

Archie stared at Gath for a moment.

"If you do, it's your own fault." He said. "You should leave now. Take your money, and just let it all go. Leave WV behind, and go somewhere else."

"In case you haven't noticed, the world is pretty much fucked right now." Gath said, his voice rising.

"Yeah. So we run. We can come back later, if we want to. I'll tell you one thing, I'm not staying here. I won't let this war wash over me." Archie said. "And if you want to come, it would be great. If you stay, I'm not going to feel sorry for you. I gave you the chance."

"Alright then. Leave. I won't care." Gath said. "Go kill your monsters, I'll be here doing something real. Defending my beliefs, my ideas."

"Defending shit. Goodbye, Gath." Archie said, and he walked away.

Gath just shook his head in disgust, and then continued his journey. He had come in order to say goodbye, but it was obvious Archie didn't want to. Their friendship had rekindled for a brief period, but it obviously wasn't meant to last. The fifth division was ahead of him, and the war was about to be joined.

* * *

"So, Seneca, what are we looking at?" Kate said, back inside the meeting room.

"I've got two false identities created for you. Kate is now Kate Becker, and Eckhart is now Lance Strongheart." Seneca answered.

"Keeping the first names, I see." Eckhart said.

"It helps to keep things as simple as possible. We don't want you to get confused and give away a crucial piece of information." Seneca said.

"Alright then." Kate said. "When do we leave?"

"As soon as possible." Seneca said. "We need to get you planted inside they're military organization. I've also ordered around fifteen other hand-picked elite members to join you. That's your cover-a mercenary group."

"Sounds good." Eckhart said. The duo left the meeting room, and got aboard a small airship. Minutes later, they were flying towards Western Victoria.

* * *

"…I don't even know what to do anymore." Josey Hendricks, the Commander-In-Chief of the EV military said. "Travis, you really blew it here. I'm afraid I have to demote you."

"Demote me? Are you serious? Just because I lost one battle?" Travis yelled.

"Yes. You failed at what a good general could accomplish easily." Hendricks replied.

"Are you crazy? I had to go through the most resistance of any point along the wall, with only one Battle Group, and you're surprised I failed?" Travis yelled.

"Calm down, calm down." Hendricks said.

"Have you forgotten whose idea this entire war was? Or are you doing this because you remember that I beat you? I'm a better tactician than anyone here!" Travis said.

"I am gauging my decision simply from what I have seen, and what I have seen suggests that you are not a good candidate for leadership." Hendricks said.

"That's crap." Travis spat back.

"We can't afford to have generals who slip up in this situation, we need a quick victory." Hendricks explained.

"That's a load of shit. There were at least three others who lost confrontations at the wall, and they're all fine." Travis said.

"They didn't have their entire battle group destroyed. You did." Hendricks said.

"…Fine then. Fuck you. I'm done." Travis said.

"Excuse me?" Hendricks replied.

"Fuck the military. I quit. I'm done, I'm gone, and I'm leaving. Goodbye." Travis stated. The paladin stormed out of the meeting hall, and then the camp.

* * *

"So, explain some more of what went on with this EV business." Eckhart said. Kate and Lance were on the airship, on a small deck outside.

"I can't say much. We had a lot of contacts inside the EV senate. About fifteen." She said, her long black hair blowing in the wind.

"Oh? How did you control them?" Lance asked.

"Blackmail. Bribery. All the typical things. But then this hotshot, Matt Travis, goes crazy…and somehow figures us out. He doesn't come out and say it, but I guarantee that he knows something. I doubt it's a leak, the kid is smart. He figured it out on his own." She answered. "We tried to stop him. Pulled in a lot of our resources, as did he. It was probably one of the biggest, both in importance and in the amount of money moving around, votes ever. We lost, but there wasn't much to do about it."

"Oh. So, what are you doing now? Can't you work your contacts?" He asked.

"Yeah sure. Actually, we got moving on that already. We got lucky in the aftermath, and managed to get Josey Hendricks elected Commander-in-Chief. He's one of our biggest contacts. He's greedy, and he has done more than his share of dirty dealings in the past. It's been easy to keep him in our palm. Anyway, I got him to demote Travis, so that rat can't influence the war anymore-unless we decide EV needs some help, in which case we let him loose. This guy is a genius; he could win an unwinnable battle. I'd be afraid if I were WV." She explained.

"Nice. Anything else?" Eckhart asked.

"Of course. Travis is the head of the snake, and we made sure he was fighting as close to the front as possible. Now, it'll take him a while to get back to Ellina, and we can make some political moves there. Travis has a right-hand man, Eric Reif, but he won't be able to do much. So, we're going to push for a political solution. Once we turn the tide. I've also managed to get a few of their top men removed by others. Less competent ones. Their military is fairly weakened, or at least their leadership is. Josey is going to take the war slow as well, and we know all of his plans. I gave him those plans. So, it'll be simple to counter them all, and crush EV. It's not as bad as Seneca implied, I've been planning for this for a while, just in case it happened." She answered.

"Huh. So what, you're playing both sides of the board here?" Eckhart asked.

"That's the idea." She answered.

"And where do you…where do you learn to do something like this? I mean, I've known you for a while, but never really talked to you much." He asked.

"Interesting question. To be honest I kind of make it up as I go along. Seneca has taught me a lot about strategy since I joined him a few years ago, and…I just went with it." She answered.

"How'd you get involved with him anyway?" He asked.

"Huh. Where do I begin…I guess you could say it happened twelve years ago. I was training on some of those fur ball things, the Jr. Yetis, and a Lycan came out. At the time, of course, I couldn't take one on. However, Seneca was traveling to Zakum and passed through the area. Seeing my predicament…he killed it. Bam. Just like that." She said.

"Huh. Seneca could certainly do that." He commented.

"Yeah. This was still when he was a young guy, full of life. Before…well, you know." She said.

"Yeah. I do." Lance said solemnly.

"Anyway, I thanked him for his help, and he said no problem, in that calm, confident way he has."

"I know what you mean." Eckhart said with a smile.

"Yeah. Well, he asked me if I ever considered taking on Zakum. I wasn't even a crusader at that point, still a lowly fighter. I said no, obviously. But then he said that if I ever wanted to give it a go, I should look him up. He said his name was Jesse Seneca, Shadower." She continued.

"It's been a while since I've heard that title." Eckhart said.

"Yeah. Well. This was when he still spiked his hair." Kate said jokingly.

"Of course." Eckhart said, chuckling. "So, what happened next?"

"Well, from what he's told us, he went and joined the military, and won at Aqua Road. I kept on training. Fast-forward about six years, and I'm close to my job advancement as Hero."

"That fast?" Eckhart asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah. I was somewhat of an obsessive trainer. The fact that a hot guy had told me to find him when I wanted to fight Zakum didn't hurt my ambitions either." Kate said.

"So, you met Seneca?"

"Yeah. I found him, and we fought Zakum with his group. A whole lot. I went almost every day. It was awesome. I got rich pretty fast too, bought some nice new stuff. Then, I advanced to being a hero. I started to become one of the pillars on which he built his team. I rose in importance. We started to face Horntail as well; we were fairly big names in the world. I guess we still are, but there are too many wars to keep track of it all. Or I'm too busy to notice. Anyway, we went on this way for a few more years, and some stuff happened between us." She continued.

"Stuff? Like…" Eckhart began.

"Yeah, I slept with him. So continuing on, we kept this up until…it happened."

"Right." Eckhart said. "Then what?"

"I didn't see him for a while, but he soon found me, and he had a plan. He told me all the details, laid out all of what would happen." She said.

"So, you know about the…objects?" He asked.

"Yeah. I do. So I won't lie, I liked the idea. We went with it, joined forces. He gathered up a few other old acquaintances, and formed the core of our team. Then, we got moving. I assume you know about this." She said.

"Yeah, I was there for most of that." He answered.

"Right. So…that's how I met Seneca. He taught me about strategy then, told me to make things happen in EV, and I did. Until this happened. Then things got a bit crazy. Now, I'm here on an airship with someone I know only as Seneca's flame-haired second-in-command. So, what about you?"

"I've known him for a while. Seneca and I met training in Leafre. I joined him to fight some bosses. I was one of those old acquaintances you mentioned. I guess Seneca took a liking to me. Now, I'm his second in command." He explained.

"That's it? Really?" She asked, incredulous.

"Well, yeah. I guess so." He said.

"Well, you've got to tell me more than that. How about another question…why so much fire magic? I don't think I've ever seen you cast one poison spell. But you're a fire and poison mage. So what's the story?" Kate asked.

Eckhart stood there, silent for a few moments.

"Lance?" Kate asked.

"…You know, it's getting late. We'll be there tomorrow; I want to get some rest. Good night." Eckhart said, quickly entering the airship. When Kate went inside ten minutes later, he was, or seemed to be, asleep.

* * *

Gath walked into the Battle camp of his new camp, the fifth battle group. Unfamiliar faces were present around him, and some people even made hostile remarks. It seemed obvious that word had gotten around as to whose fault it was that Hettinger's Wall, a bastion of defense for years, had been breached. Twice. Thankfully, before too long, he reached the commanders tent, and entered.

"Ah, hello there. What can I do for you?" The commander asked.

"…Is that you? Munro?" Gath asked incredulously.

"The one and only. I managed to secure a promotion with some old contacts. They're remaking the entire subterfuge division, so I would have been forced out anyway." He answered.

"…Wow…" Gath said.

"Yeah. You should consider yourself lucky. You know, I've been thinking a lot about what happened. To be honest…I think we were played. You're a scapegoat, obviously, but this was something no one could have seen." He said.

"What do you mean?" Gath asked.

"From the way I remember the night…Travis was looking around far too much. Especially for how he acted, yelling for single-minded pursuit. I think…he was looking for me. Expecting me. It could be a coincidence, but this, along with false orders…"

"Yeah. I know what you're saying." Gath replied.

"Exactly. He wanted Jenreau to escape, but make it seem like they would protect the orders at all costs, just to throw us off. Smart bastard." Munro said.

"Right." Gath said.

"But, now I'm here. We can't dwell on the past. It's time to be optimistic, look towards the future, and figure out how to beat this thing. Also, just so you know, I'm promoting you immediately. You're a scapegoat, and I know what you can do. My name wasn't mentioned as one of those who got the orders, but yours was, so you'll want to watch out. You can head to tent 8A, it'll be yours. I'll see you around five for planning." The shadower said.

"Thanks. It means a lot." Gath said, smiling.

"No problem."

* * *

With a soft bump, the airship touched down on WV soil. Kate and Lance got off, neither speaking. Three hours later, they were in a conference room with Cody Frazer, the others waiting outside.

"…So, Miss Becker and Mr. Strongheart…I understand you're looking for a job here." Cody said.

"That's true." Kate replied. "We both have experience as mercenaries, and we're looking to…make a name for ourselves."

"Mercenaries, huh? I wasn't away that many people held that job." Cody said.

"Not many do. We handle things like security for very important people, or defending trade ships from pirates." Kate said.

"So…you've never had any experience with large confrontations, such as the ones we would expect?" Cody asked.

"Not really." Lance said. "However, we will do whatever is necessary to bring you victory."

"Right. Of course you will. Now then, if you're so great, why do you need to make a name for yourselves?" Cody said.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kate said. "We want money. If we do something big here, our prestige shoots up. Obviously you haven't heard of us, and I'd assume most others here haven't as well. We normally operate out of Ludibrium, and the name 'Soulcrushers' works for us there. However…we need to expand, and gain more prestigious offers."

"Ok. I've had a few friends do some background checks, and apparently, the Soulcrushers are a _very_ successful group over in Ludibrium, so your story checks out." Cody said.

"Of course it did." Lance said. "Now then, we aren't fools. It's obvious that WV is in a hell of a lot of trouble right now. You need help, and you need help now. So, we're here to offer it."

"You're not a large group, but it seems you're good at what you do. So, I'll hire you. As military advisors, you said." Cody said.

"Correct. We aren't looking to get any of our members killed in a pointless confrontation. In fact, they'll be heading back to Ludibrium shortly. We just brought them in case things…didn't turn out so well." Kate said.

"Understandable. We might have thought you were EV and killed you all. So, just the two of you then. Let's talk price." Cody said.

"Well…we're looking for a lot. Two-hundred. Each. Per day." Lance said.

"Two-hundred thousand? Each? I'm sorry, but we can't quite afford the price tag. How about something a little less…lucrative. Say…one-hundred?" He offered.

"One fifty." Eckhart demanded.

"One-hundred. Final offer." Cody answered.

"…Fine. We'll take it." Kate said.

"Good." Cody smiled. "We'll have the contracts drawn up immediately. The war room is two doors down the hall, on the left. Get in there and figure out how to get us out of this." He said.

The duo nodded, and they left.

* * *

"Look, Matt, I'm sorry it didn't pan out for you." Steve Travis was talking to his son for the first time in years. "But I'm glad you came back. The most important thing you can know is when to find help.

"I know, dad. But that Hendricks pisses me off. Now, he's going to swoop in and take all the credit for the victory-following my plan." Travis explained.

"That's politics. I warned you before you got in. Calm down, and let's think this through slowly." Steve said.

"…Ok. What?" Matt asked.

"Hendricks is a good friend of mine, right?" Steve began. "I can try to talk to him, and I can try to reverse his decision."

"Alright, but what if he refuses?" Matt said.

"Then we move on to plan B. I'm proud of you, Matt. This was a great plan. Attacking WV…it worked well. And I'm sure you could use your influence to get something done." Steve said.

"Hopefully." Matt answered.

"Yes. Hopefully. What you must remember though, is to never give up. You lost a lot. The battle, your position, your battle group…but they are all just things. And you can regain them, through hard work. When you started this war, you had my friends and I running scared. And you were right. We were wrong. You did a great job to push the motion through. Now, I think, it is time for you to join us. We could really use someone like you." Steve said.

"I didn't come here to join your political group. I've had enough of them. Nothing matters as long as they keep their money." Matthew explained.

"…That's not entirely true. We try to keep EV around." Steve said.

"Yeah. 'Course you do. At the very least…no. I'm done with all of this. Politics, war, everything. Leave it to the others. Sure, EV will fall, but I don't care anymore." Matt said.

"…If that's what you want, I'm certainly not going to stop you." Steve said.

"It is." Matt said. He walked out of the house, and quickly teleported to his own, where he spent the rest of the day trying to puzzle out what he should do.

* * *

"So, say we attacked their right flank, here…" A mage was saying in WV's war room.

"Terrible idea." Eckhart said. "Their right flank is strong. Hit the left. Hit it hard. Then, send the thirteenth division through the wall, and hit 'em from behind. Squash 'em."

"…Our intelligence reports that the left flank is strong." The mage explained.

"Exactly." Eckhart said. "Weren't you paying attention before? The reason you're in this mess is because you believed your 'intelligence' was correct. Unfortunately, it wasn't before, and I'm guessing it isn't now. They own your spies, and they'll anticipate an attack on the right. We want to play the opponent, not the game. Because we lose the game. The have larger and better forces than we do. You have to take some chances, and this one seems like an obvious option."

"So…we go against what we know?" The mage asked.

"No." Now Kate stepped in. "You go against what they told you. Because they know that you think their left is strong, they can mass their forces and prepare for an assault from the right. It's not a hard concept." She finished.

"Cody?" The mage asked.

"Sounds like a good idea to me." The CIC answered. "We have to do something if we want to win. This is the first legitimate option I've seen. Let's go for it.

"Alright then." The mage said. "Send the orders-let the counterstrike begin."


	6. Soulcrushers

A/N: Once again, sorry for the long update time. This story isn't dead though, and it won't die for a long time.

Also, the character of Eckhart isn't based in anyway off of a Cygnus Knight. I didn't even know there was a knight named that when I made the character.

R/R please. Enjoy.

* * *

Roy loved the fighting, although his body ached.

_Dodge, parry, thrust, kick, stab…_

His opponent stopped moving after the finishing blow. Another enemy dispatched.

_Parry, thrust, STRIKE!_

His Dragon Faltizan glowed blue as it slammed through another opponent, a crusader.

The battle had been joined for several hours now, and the 'soulcrushers' were quickly gaining ground. One week ago, two military advisors had came to WV and quickly changed things around. Now, Roy was a member of an elite group known as the 'soulcrushers', made up of the best in the army. The name had been taken from the two advisors' mercenary group. At this point, they had pushed deep into EVs front lines.

Roy ran forward, disarming an opponent with his Faltizan's spikes, and then killing her. He took a quick moment to look around, and saw their leader, Kate Becker, engaged with a White Knight. Within seconds, he had drawn a Serpent's Tongue spear, which soon found itself embedded in the White Knight.

"Thanks….' Kate began.

"Roy. I'm Roy." Andrews finished.

She nodded. "Alright then, Roy, want to help me exterminate this group?" She asked.

"Hell yes!" He answered.

The two warriors flew into a group of opponents, Roy's Faltizan and Kate's Reverse Nibleheim flashing through their enemies. Ten seconds later, the entire group had been defeated.

"That's why we use elite groups…they can win against anyone." Kate said.

"True. True. Why was the other half sent somewhere else?" He inquired. He was particularly interested in Amanda, the only other member of his former division to join the Soulcrushers.

Kate winked. "Wait. They should be here any moment now." As if on cue, Andrews heard a roar coming from the north. He couldn't make out any individuals, but he saw huge gouts of flame blasting their opponents.

"Nice…" He exclaimed.

"Exactly. Let's go!" Kate replied.

The second charge did exactly what it needed to. In less than half an hour, the EV's entire force had retreated behind the breach, and a good portion of them lay dead on the battlefield. WV had kept a small front while advancing, allowing their best to cycle in and out of the front lines. The tactic had worked extremely well, and WV suffered few casualties. Many of these could be resurrected by the force of bishops that traveled with them. A great victory had been achieved.

"Hey, good battle!"

Kate's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Lance, her counterpart.

"Yeah, it worked great. Should we…return to the command tent?" She asked.

"…Yeah." Lance said, after quickly glancing around.

The two proceeded back to their headquarters, a tent with magical protection so that it would be soundproof.

"So, one week, and we push EV back behind the wall. How's that for turning the tide?" Eckhart said, smiling. "Let's celebrate." He said, getting a bottle of wine out.

"Yes, it was great." Kate said, accepting her glass. "What next? I guess we proceed to kill EV all the way back to Ellina, then restart the process?"

"Sounds good to me." Eckhart answered, completely serious. "We've really proven ourselves as military advisors. But…I think we don't want to take this too fast, we should take up some more time. How about we advise Cody to…spread out his groups along the wall again, with the strongest forces at the breaches, to allow us to rebuild the wall. Then, you can make EV act cautiously, maybe even ask for a diplomatic solution. The war just went south for them, the conservatives will be trusted in their senate…should be easy to pull off."

"I like it. We can bog them down for a few weeks. I think the smart idea here, though, is to continue the war. We could try to make a diplomatic solution work, but it would be better if these two sides continue to kill each other off." She remarked.

"Yeah. Ending the war now…would be unwise. They'd both just build up their militaries even more, expecting it to be rejoined. Then, they'd be somewhat ready when we come." Lance answered, as they heard a knock. The tent itself didn't have a door, but magical barrier blocked entry to anyone they didn't let in.

Eckhart got up and opened the tent, allowing a burly dark knight in.

"Roy, how have you been?" Kate asked immediately.

"Not bad, I quite enjoyed the fight." He answered with a smile. "However, I have a request to make"

"Sure, anything." She replied, intrigued.

"I'm impressed by your skills, and I'd like to duel you some time. I like to challenge myself, and there was only one person in my old camp who could really do that." He explained.

"Ah, now things get interesting!" Lance enthusiastically exclaimed. "Only one week in, and you already get challenged!"

"Shut up, Lance." She retorted. "Yeah, Roy, that would be great. I've got to show my dominance somehow…three o'clock. Tomorrow."

"Sounds good." Roy said, and he left.

* * *

"Look, Travis, we NEED you right now!" Eric Reif said, running his hand through his black hair. Eric had assumed lead of the AC during Travis' absence.

"No. Eric, I'm done." Travis said sharply. He had no emotion even after he saw his brown-eyed companion's face fall.

"Come on. The war has gone badly after our initial attack, and we need to get started again! You're our leader Travis, no matter how much we joke about your age." He said frantically.

"Well, I guess the AC is disbanded then." Travis remarked sourly.

"You're still a senator! How can you just sit here and do nothing while this goes on? You can't just quit and give up!" Eric yelled.

"That's exactly what I'm doing. My plan worked, at least until Hendricks fucked it up. Too bad. Maybe EV will survive, maybe it won't." Travis said, uninterested.

"Travis…I can't do this. I can't rally our allies force a motion through, or anything like that. I need you, otherwise EV will fall." Eric said desperately.

"Yeah. Sure. EVs not gonna fall. Not yet." Travis said.

"…Huh? What do you mean?" Eric questioned.

"I…I never could have done anything. That's what I now realize." Travis said, almost at a whisper.

"You spent everything on this plan! What do you mean, it couldn't affect anything?" Eric demanded.

"Pay attention to what goes on around you, Eric." Travis snapped. "Things got bad soon after our attack. Soon after we broke through the wall, in what may have been the only way possible, by using subterfuge. But then…then what? It didn't matter. One week. That's all it took. And guess what else happened? WV got a few new military advisors. Our spies know this. And these military advisors did the best thing they possibly could to fight us."

"So they got lucky. That doesn't mean we can't fight back!" Eric exclaimed.

"They got luckier than what is humanly possible. Meaning it's not luck." Travis said, annoyed.

"Spies?" Eric asked.

"No. Not really, anyway. El Nath. That's something I realized from piecing together these events. Hendricks firing me could have just been him on his own, but he didn't listen to my father, and now the military advisors know Hendricks's plan exactly…that's too much to be a coincidence. El Nath owns Hendricks, and El Nath just planted some military advisors, who, with continued success, will become the most trusted people militarily in all of WV. In other words, El Nath controls _both _militaries. They're playing everyone, and the war will continue until they decide to make it stop. We can't do anything about it." Travis explained.

"…Seriously?" Eric asked, shocked.

"That's exactly what's going on. I can't do anything to fight against that. To fight now would be pointless. Whoever is behind this all is good. Very good. In a few years, they'll control El Nath, Orbis, and Victoria Island…and from there, it only gets bigger. They'll be an unstoppable force." Travis said, dejected.

"…Well...let me think this through for a moment. The thing that keeps getting me is that…well, they aren't unstoppable yet. They can still be beaten." Eric said.

"Whoever is behind this is a genius. They played their cards right from the start, and they know what they're doing. This isn't an opponent we can beat." Travis said.

"…How can you say that? Come on Travis, I know it seems bad…but we can still fight. Fight for EV. Fight for what we formed the AC for. Hell, fight just because there's nothing else we can do!" Eric said.

"No, Eric. We've lost. They control everyone except Orbis, just not publicly." Travis said.

"…No they don't. Come on, Travis, what was that quote you always told everyone? 'Any battle is winnable, if you do something crazy enough.' That's what we need now. We need some kind of Matthew Travis-so-crazy-it-might-actually-work plan. And we can still win!" Eric said, trying to inspire the paladin.

"It won't work." Travis said.

"You haven't even tried yet!" Eric exclaimed. "Come on, we have options! We could assassinate their leader, we could assassinate the military advisors, we could kill Hendricks and somehow put you in his place, we could, I don't know, raise a secret army and hit WV from behind at Lith harbor with it! It doesn't matter what, the thing that matters is that we still have options, and until we've exhausted them all, we need to keep fighting! We can't just roll over and let them win! You're our best, Travis. I've never seen anybody better than you at planning. We need you." Eric said, pleading.

"…No. No is still my answer. I'm sorry, Eric. But not only do I think it's impossible to win, I don't even want to try anymore. I feel…drained, tired, and done. I worked my ass off for over a year just to get this war going, and now I've got to start from scratch. I can't do it. I need to rest." Travis explained.

"…What happened? You were always the most ambitious of us, the one who would do anything just to save EV…and now you don't care. If you really are done…then I'm gone. It's up to someone to save EV, and I guess that falls to me, now." Eric said dejectedly. "Just tell me what happened. Why do you not care?"

"…I just don't. I lost a battle I should have won, I'm tired, and right now, I have no motivation. I just…don't care. I can't describe why, or…I just can't. I can't do it." Travis tried to explain.

"This is about the battle, then?" Reif asked. "We all fail sometimes, Travis. We just need to get back up and do something about it."

"…No, Eric. Please leave. I…need to be alone." Travis said.

"…Fine. Goodbye, old friend. I hope you change your mind. We need you." Eric said as he left the house.

* * *

…"Alright then. You ready for this?" Kate asked her opponent.

"Hell yes!" Roy answered. "Let's go! I've been waiting for too long."

Eckhart stood at one edge of the ring, and the combatants were surrounded by a large crowd.

"Very well. Begin!" Eckhart exclaimed.

Roy rushed towards Kate, Faltizan drawn. He leapt through the air towards her as a blue ring surrounded her. She quickly knocked the lance aside with a small wrist movement. A kick followed immediately afterwards.

Roy swiftly dodged it, before knocking two rapid stabs from Kate's swords. However, these two stabs translated into two blue orbs appearing in the ring.

Kate pressed her advantage, her blade stabbing at Roy, then slashing, then stabbing again in a flurry of attacks. Roy weathered the storm, constantly knocking her blade aside. Then, in one moment, he saw his opportunity.

As Kate slashed at him, he caught her blade with the side of his Faltizan. The spear had a row of spikes, or 'teeth' on the side of it, made specifically for catching opponents' blades. He ripped the blade out of her hands, the ring of blue and pink orbs dissipating.

"Not bad" Kate said, before rolling to dodge his counterattack. Roy tried to be aggressive, but he couldn't land a blow. A few seconds later, she grabbed her sword, and was ready to fight.

Kate ran towards him and attacked again, steel clashing and those same blue orbs appearing. As Roy saw her combo grow, he felt her attacks increase in strength. He would have to break it.

Once Kate left her guard down for a moment, he struck. His Faltizan glowed blue with mana, and slammed into his opponent. The impact sent Kate flying, but her enchanted armor took the brunt of the blow. As Kate tried to regain her balance, Roy pressed his attack with a flurry of thrusts. The hero managed to deflect these, and with a swift motion she managed to sweep him off of his feet. The dark knight quickly rolled away, and both combatants had ample time to get their footing.

Roy charged, breaking the standoff, determined to get into a rhythm this time. He made a few attacks, but these were feints, allowing him to close with her, getting too close for her to use her sword effectively. Then, Roy spun his foot around behind Kate's legs, and he slammed into her. Kate felt her legs give way, landing hard and dropping her sword as she did so.

Roy quickly moved to finish, but she rolled out of his spear's path, and it hit nothing but dirt. Kate swiftly grabbed her sword and scrambled to her feet. She didn't wait around this time, and charged at him again.

Roy struggled to defend against the ferocious assault, slashes barely missing him time and time again. Before long, she had five pink orbs circling her. As Roy saw the orbs join with her sword as she struck again, he realized her plan. Unfortunately for the dark knight, the realization arrived seconds late.

The sword slammed into his side, leaving a huge rent in his armor, and sending him flying.

Roy landed hard, coughing up blood. However, he had no time to rest, as Kate showed no mercy. He used his spear like a quarterstaff as she attempted to strike the fallen warrior. Before she could finish him, Roy sent her sprawling, sweeping her legs away with his spear. The combatants got up simultaneously, and Kate began to attack again.

Roy, however, knew he had to take a breather. Before she could land a single attack, he slammed his spear into the ground as blue light surrounded the spearman. He roared as he did so, the amplified sound creating a shockwave that threw Kate twenty feet in the air, before she slammed into the ground.

Although the hero took her time getting up, the dark knight stood and caught his breath, forced to lean on his spear for support. Roy stood there panting, and the two combatants stood there for a few seconds, both catching their breath.

Kate chose to strike next, charging at Roy and attacking aggressively, knowing that Roy had to expend a good deal of energy on the shockwave. The two exhausted warriors began a slower fight. However, it seemed Kate had the advantage with her combo technique.

Roy was slowly retreating from her onslaught, pausing every now and then to make an attack of his own, none of his blows struck home. Instead of choosing to expend her orbs on one big strike, Kate used their power to fuel more attacks, beating her opponent down.

Eventually, Roy felt his grip slipping, and with one attack, his Faltizan went flying from his hands. Unable to summon the energy to retrieve it he couldn't stop what happened next. Kate simply gathered all of the orbs into her sword and thrust it into his chest. Roy felt everything go black around him as he fell to the ground.

A short time later, he awoke to the hand of a bishop. He got up and walked over to Kate.

"Hey, good duel." He said, pleased with the bout.

"Thanks, you too. I guess you just need more endurance." She said.

"Yeah, that would have helped." He said. "Anyway, I hear we got some new orders. We're supposed to stay here while the wall is rebuilt, right?"

"Yes, that's the plan." She answered. "Why?"

"Well, there's this friend of mine, Cade Rentiir. He's in the military as well, but he also does a lot of things involving big monsters, like Zakum. Anyway, he managed to get a few days of leave, and I wanted to know if I could join him. He's putting a group together to go take on the big rock. There's a friend of mine, Amanda Deyrose, who wants to go too. Is there any way we could get a few days off?" He asked.

"Yeah, of course." She answered. "I'll draw up the papers, but you guys can leave whenever. You've got a week, that's how long it'll take for us to fix this up. Don't tell anyone though, we don't want too many people leaving."

"Great, thanks." Roy said.

* * *

"Obviously, war was not for us. However, I think we should reconsider our decision to fight WV in the first place, and we should try to fix this with diplomacy" Josey Hendricks finished. Immediately, shouts were heard, both for and against. EV was in the middle of an emergency senate meeting to determine what they were going to do about their 'problem'.

"I don't think this is a good idea." Eric Reif said, speaking up for his side. "Just because _you_ couldn't win this war doesn't mean others will fail. I say we elect a new commander-in-chief, someone to lead this fight the right way. Sure, WV managed to get back to the wall, but it has still been breached! We can pour back through those breaches, as long as we have a competent commander. It may look bad, but this war is still ours for the taking. I can see a victory in as little as two weeks."

"I may have failed, and I acknowledge that failure, but it simply isn't smart to remain at war right now. Yes, we have a chance to win, but in order to do so, we must risk everything. Now is our best chance, considering as you said, that we _can _still attack WV. It shows we've changed our minds, and that we are ready to move on." Hendricks replied.

"Move on? One doesn't just 'move on' from something like this! If we choose not to fight, WV will think it's because we know we're going to lose, they'll think we have a weakness that they can exploit, and they will try to exploit it! If we quit now, they will come after us!" Eric exclaimed.

"ENOUGH!" roared the courtmaster. It is time for this to be put to vote.

Familiar buttons slid out in front of each senator. Soon afterwards, the votes were in.

"Those for diplomacy…57. Those against, 22. 21 members are not present. Thus, it is decided. We will stop fighting and try to use diplomacy as our weapon."

* * *

"Alright, alright, quiet down now." The blond warrior's voice boomed across the room, and it immediately became silent.

"I know a lot of you were disappointed when our Zakum run was cancelled because of the war. Thankfully, most of our members have managed to gain a few weeks of leave from the war, and we are able to fight Zakum after all." Cade said, addressing a group of about thirty members.

"However, before we begin, there are a few things that need to be said. First of all, the political situation in El Nath is…well, they aren't very accepting of foreigners. Fortunately, if they know you're there for Zakum, and you'll be fine. A lot of their money comes from people like us. Second of all, we aren't all going to travel together. This is something El Nath requests of travelers, so we can't travel in groups of more than six at a time, and there will be rigorous background checks, searches…stuff like that. They're afraid of Orbis. Also, because Orbis tower is blocked off, we are going to take a slightly longer route. I've rented out five airships, which will take us to Ludibrium. Then, we'll climb down Helios Tower, enter Aqua Road, and reach EL Nath from there. We can't fly directly there, it's illegal for anyone besides El Nath to use airships in that region. So, any questions? No? Alright then, I'll announce your groups." The hero explained.

Soon afterwards, Gath found himself put in a group…with Archie. Their earlier argument scared him a bit, and he thought the situation would be a bit awkward, but thankfully, they were in Cade's group. The other group members were Roy Andrews, a dark knight, Amanda Deyrose, an Ice/Lightning archmage, and Kristen Tempest, a bowmaster. He eventually pulled himself together and walked over to join the rest of his group.

"Hey, Gath, how's it going?" Cade greeted him merrily. "So, I've tried to mix all the newbies up, you and Kristen are the only two in this group. Of course, you know Archie, Roy's the dark knight, and Amanda is the archmage."

The dark knight and archmage greeted him with a nod, before returning to their conversation. Kristen, however, greeted him with a handshake and a quick hello. Then, Gath looked over towards Archie.

"Gath…" Archie began.

"Forget about it." Gath quickly said, cutting the sniper off. "It's no big deal. Let's just go and beat the shit out of this rock, got it?"

The sniper nodded.

Cade was silent for a moment, a quizzical look on his face. "Alright then, everybody knows each other…let's get started! As I'm the leader of this, We'll be heading out first, and making sure El Nath knows we're coming."

"Hang on a minute." Archie said. "Why are there only thirty people here? I thought that we would have around fifty in this group."

"Ah. Well…that's the war for you. You see, the people here are only those from EV. I originally had a joint WV/EV run set up with another man from EV, Matthew Travis. However, we both decided it would be safer if we decided not to combine forces. This way, we can avoid crazy nationalists who decide they have some 'duty' to their country and need to kill everyone else. It's just easier. Cade explained.

"Wait…did you say Matthew Travis?" Gath inquired.

"Yeah, why? Have you heard of him?" Rentiir said.

"Yeah, once or twice." Gath said, trying to act uninterested. It would be better if Cade didn't know of their connection.

"Well, that's not surprising. He's one of the youngest to ever become a fourth-classer, so word must get around. This was his first time leading a run too, it's disappointing that he couldn't make it…anyway, let's get moving." The hero said.

The group proceeded out of Cade's house, and after a quick march, the had reached the launch area, near the western edge of Victoria Island. Twenty minutes later, they were airborne. As Roy and Amanda were lost in their own conversation, and Archie still felt distant, Gath decided to talk to the other newcomer, Kristen. She seemed fairly young, but still experienced. She had long blonde hair, and wielded a golden nisrock.

"Hey, so, you're new to this too?" He asked.

"Yeah, this is my first time." She answered. "I knew Cade through a friend, and because I'm already a bowmaster, I decided it was about time."

"Yeah, I agree." Gath said.

"Anyway, I was a bit scared when I heard about the war, but thankfully, we can still fight it." Kristen continued.

"Yeah, that's good. What do you do, anyway?" Gath asked.

"Fight monsters, mainly." She said with a grin. "I spend most of my time in Leafre. Technically, I'm a citizen of WV though."

"Oh? So you've lived here for your entire life? I'm a native of Henesys, myself." The ranger said.

"…No, Actually, I'm from Aqua Road." Kristen answered.

"…Oh. Sorry, if you don't want to talk about-" Gath began.

"No, it's fine." Kristen cut him off. "It happened twelve years ago. It's sad, but there's nothing I can do to change it."

"Yeah…" Gath said. After a few moments of silence, he spoke again. "I guess you don't want to tell me what happened…"

"You mean the rush up Orbis Tower?" She asked.

"Yeah. I've always wondered what that was like…" He said.

"It was…strange. Hectic. I don't remember much, I was only eleven. Most of our fighters formed a wall, preventing El Nath from closing in, we had told Orbis to disable to magic spots…and then we ran up the tower. For twelve straight hours. Very few of us survived. And then…I came here to WV."

"…It makes me feel strange when I think about this war…" Gath began. "What if something like that happens again, to us or our opponents?"

"No war is ever good." Kristen said. "But sometimes…there are things worth fighting for. Or worth fighting against. I've known that the world isn't perfect for a long time, and…sometimes things need to be done. The Victorian conflict is pointless though. As is the war between El Nath and Orbis. I wish…it would just all end, you know? Just stop. Everyone would live their own lives and not fight anybody."

"I know what you mean." Gath said, as the ship sped towards Ludibrium. He didn't see the sour look Archie shot him as he said this.

* * *

"I'm impressed. Very impressed." Cody said. He paced around WVs war room, eager to plan their next move. "You managed to…well, your plan pushed EV back behind the wall. Excellent job. However, we aren't out of the woods yet. We need a plan of action to carry us further forward. So, what do you have for me?"

Kate stepped forward, and outlined their plan to Cody. "It's simple, really. Obviously, we don't want to go after EV only to be drawn into a trap, and the have them pouring back through the breaches. The idea is to spread out our forces, as they were before the war, all along the wall. Then, we repair the breaches, with our forces staying nearby to prevent another attack. Once the walls are repaired, we can move on. We have huge labor forces near both breaches, and with the foundations already there, it will only take about a week. Then, we can evaluate our options."

"…That sounds great, actually." Cody said. "In fact...EV sent us a message asking for diplomatic relations to begin between the two of us. I'll get a diplomat soon and send them over, and at the very least, stall for a while."

"That sounds like a good plan." Lance said. "Anyway, we can always push to attack after the walls are repaired, and it will be much safer then. Sounds like a plan."

"Yes, good job you two." Cody said, walking out.

* * *

Cade's party was making it's way down Helios tower. Cade and Kristen were up front, Roy and Amanda close behind. However, Gath and Archie had been held up at the airship platform, so they were following close behind.

"Gath…you need to tell me something." Archie began. "What exactly do you…I mean, what exactly are your views on the war?"

"What do you mean? Which one?" Gath replied.

"When I was talking to you earlier, and when I said the wars were stupid and pointless, you disagreed with me. However, when Kristen said the same thing, you agreed with her. So, which is it?" Archie demanded.

"…To be honest, I don't know. The war…well, I thought about what you said to me, and to be honest, it really does seem pointless. I don't know why we're fighting in it besides self-defense. And Kristen was right about the war between Orbis and El Nath, that's pointless." He replied.

"…Yeah…I guess so. I guess I convinced you." Archie said.

"Well, not completely. There are certain things that I think it's worth fighting for, but this war? It's not worth it." Gath clarified.

"Huh. So, what would convince you to fight in a war? You know, of your own free will, not a contract you signed." Archie questioned.

"Well…it would have to be something good, obviously. Something important. Freedom." Gath explained.

"…I see what you're saying. However, what about…what about a war to end all wars? Wouldn't that be the ultimate good cause?" The sniper said.

"Well, I guess so. But how would that be possible? Nations don't just stop fighting overnight." Gath replied.

"Well, you'd have to destroy nations, obviously." Archie said. "But would you consider participating in something like that, a war to eliminate nations?"

"The only way to do that would be to conquer them all, and then eliminate them." The ranger replied slowly, aware of where this was headed.

"True." Archie began. "However…would it be worth it? Would you be willing to attempt such a task?"

"Attempt? Are you talking about starting a war here?" Gath demanded.

"No, not in any way. Just a hypothetical situation." Archie replied.

"Well…" The ranger began. "To be honest, I don't know. Maybe. It depends what the situation was, who was on the sides, what level of destruction there was…things like that. I honestly couldn't say."

"Alright then. How about a less serious topic. What do you think of Kristen?" He asked.

"What? What do you mean?" Gath said, slightly defensively.

"Heh. Well, it's obvious that it wasn't just because I changed your mind that you agreed with her." The sniper said.

"So she's attractive. Sue me." Gath said.

"Hey, I didn't say anything bad about it. You just haven't had a girlfriend for years." Archie said seriously. "Make sure she doesn't get away."

"…Yeah, sure. Good advice." Gath said dismissively. The two archers walked out of Helios Tower, and into a small, traditional community at the bottom. Cade walked over and greeted them.

"Gath! Archie! About time you guys got here!" The hero said.

"Yeah, well…Ludibrium seemed a bit cynical. Oh well. We all set then?" Archie asked.

"Yeah, come on over." Cade said, motioning to the rest of their group.

"Now then, let's go over the plans one more time." Rentiir said, once they were together. "We go down the well, and we're in Aqua Road. Here…" He reached and took a few small pills from his pack. "These pills will let you breathe underwater for hours. There's a large stash in the city as well. We'll go into the ocean, and swim for several miles, underwater. Eventually, we'll reach a small island, which has been transformed into a docking area. Anybody who frequents this area uses it. I've got six boats there, one for each party. We'll travel the rest of the way by boat. Any questions?"

When nobody spoke up, he continued. "Ok then. I know the way, so I'll lead. Roy and Amanda, you two guard the flanks. The rest of you…just stay in the middle of the group. There shouldn't be any trouble. Ok then…" Cade finished. The hero leapt into the well, swallowing his pill as he did so. The rest of the group followed, their heads surrounded by air bubbles.

"Wow…" Gath said, as the ocean opened up before him. He had never been in Aqua Road before.

"Yeah, pretty awesome, huh?" Kristen said. "I haven't been here in years. It feels great to be back in the water again."

"It's amazing. So clear, and so blue…" Gath said.

"Yeah, it's nice." Amanda cut in. "So, neither of you have fought Zakum before?" The archmage inquired.

"Nope." They both replied.

"Well, you're gonna want to be careful. It takes a bit to get used to." She said.

"I'm sure we can handle it" Kristen said.

"Alright then." Amanda finished.

"Hey, Amanda's right, you two." Cade said sincerely. "It sounds like it's all fun and games, but when we're there, you have to watch your back. In a place where you could die at any moment…it pays to be cautious."

"Got it." Gath said.

"Anyway, Gath, have you decided what you want your Zakum item to be?" Cade asked.

"Not really, I don't know yet." Gath answered.

"Well, that's fine, there's no pressure. After you beat Zakum, you can take part of it with you, but you can keep the piece for a long time and it'll still be magical. When you're ready though, just head to the Alcaster and let him make one for you." Cade said.

"You'll definently like it. It helped me a lot after I got mine." Amanda said. She held up a necklace, formed from solid rock. Engravings wound their way about the stone.

"Nice." Gath said.

"Yeah, well. Just don't die before you can get yours." Amanda said.

"Sounds like a plan." The ranger replied, half-joking.

* * *

Without a word, a shady figure struck out into the night, surrounded by darkness. Nobody saw him go. The next day, however, all knew of his departure.

The shipyards housed many public transports, and many private transports as well. There were few guards here, most had abandoned their posts because of the war. The remaining few weren't so lucky.

A mace, it's wielder unseen, slammed into each one. None survived long enough to raise the alarm. The figure moved to untie a small boat. He sailed away into the night.

* * *

"Here we are. El Nath…" Cade said.

"Cade! What was it you wanted to see me about?" A voice called out. Gath turned and saw a shadower walking towards them. He couldn't help but let out a small gasp upon seeing the thief's timeless armor. Only the best of the best could stand a chance against the legendary Pink Bean, who guarded the extraordinary pieces of time necessary to make such items.

"Oh, right. Hang on guys, this will only be a second." Cade said. The pair walked a short distance away before the talked.

"Huh. He looks important." Archie remarked.

"…Yeah…" Gath said.

"You mean you don't know who that is?" Amanda asked.

"No, I don't think so…" Gath answered.

"His name's Jessie Seneca. He used to be in charge of all Zakum parties. Now…he's the leader of El Nath's military."

"What's Cade doing talking to someone like that?" Kristen asked.

"No idea. They were good friends a while ago, when Cade took a group to Zakum almost every week. I didn't know they still talked."

Cade walked back over.

"Alright, this could be a bit. Gath, Kristen, head to the Alcaster and tell him what Zakum items you want. The rest of you…head to the meeting place. I'll be there soon."

"Well…it looks like something's going on between them…" Roy said.

Archie shrugged. "Well, there's nothing we can do about it. Come on, let's go."

After the other three had left, Gath turned to Kristen. "So…do you have any idea where the Alcaster is?"

"Nope. No idea." She replied.

"Well…we better start looking." Gath said.

The pair of bowmen walked deeper into El Nath.

"So, what do you know about Seneca?" Gath asked.

"Nothing much. I've heard of him before. He used to go after Zakum almost every day. He was in the military for a few years, then he started Zakum runs again, and then… he just stopped."

"When was that?" Gath asked.

"Oh, about four years ago. I think." Kristen answered.

"Was he…" Gath began.

"No. He wasn't at Aqua Road." She quickly finished. "In fact…my dad said he was one of their contacts. Rich contacts. Apparently he spent almost all of his money, from years of Zakum raids, to bribe portions of the El Nath military. Rumor has it that that's why he joined, to gain connections. Seneca left the military soon after. He was one of the reasons we were able to escape."

"Wow. How do you go from doing that to leading your countries military?" Gath asked.

"No idea. I was surprised when I heard about it." Kristen answered.

* * *

"Matthew Travis. I've been expecting you." A voice proclaimed. Matthew couldn't see the man's face, but being near him gave Travis chills.

"Yes. I heard you would help me…I'm not good enough right now. I need to save my home…my country…but my skills are not good enough. I wish for you to train me, as fast as possible, so I can save my people."

"Yes, yes…I know this well. I have been watching you, for longer than you know. You are one of the few who shows true potential. You may think you are just another senator, but you…you can, you _will _change the world." The voice exclaimed.

"I'll change it? How?" Travis asked.

"That, young Matthew, is up to you. You could bring about more competition, which leads to wars and suffering. Or…you could try to create a peaceful planet."

"…How so?" the paladin inquired.

"You'll learn, in good time, my pupil." The man replied.

"…May I know you name?" Travis asked.

"I am Manus Dei. You do not need to ask me to train you, for I will do it willingly. I know that you will stand for what is right…let us begin." Mauns said.

* * *

"Fellow warriors! Hear me now!" Rentiir's voice boomed out. The entire Zakum force had gathered outside of the demon's altar, waiting for him to appear.

"Some of you have never fought Zakum before today. Fear not, for you are surrounded by experienced veterans. Stay close to them, and you will not fall. This is no matter to be taken lightly. We have three bishops with us. If you fall, and they aren't there…it's over. That's it. Do not treat such a battle lightly, no matter how many times you've done it. With that in mind…Here he comes!"

All at once, stones began to gather in the shape of a monstorous statue. Before it could even form, every adventurer in the room had drawn their weapons.

Gath pulled back on his bow string and released, sending the first spray of arrows at the beast. However, within seconds, he realized why Cade had warned them.

Only his quick reflexes saved him as a huge spike jutted out of the ground towards him, disappearing as fast as it appeared. He looked up and saw eight huge arms surounding the statue. Cade's sword quickly slashed back and forth, leaving huge gashes on the demon.

However, just as Gath processed the statue, three dozen smaller stone constructs were abruptly formed from the cavern's rocks.

"Archers, shoot them down!" He heard Cade yell.

Within seconds the cave shone with bright yellow shafts slamming into the floating golems, some exploding on contact, others smashing straight through them, obliterating them.

"Stay ready for more!" Cade yelled. "Keep the skies clear!"

It sounded easy enough, but Gath felt overwhelmed by the pure insanity of the fight. The entire cavern shook as Zakum caused earthquakes, and the party found itself constantly bombarded, either with flames or hails of rock. The ranger found himself knocked to the ground, trying to avoid boulders that promised death, and had no time to process as another swarm of golems appeared, promising death.

Roy Slashed and stabbed again and again, seemingly to no avail. However, he had fought the beast before, and it would tire…eventually. His thoughts were interrupted as one of Zakum's arms swung toward him. Roy quickly anchored his feet into place using mana, before holding his spear to block the assault. Trembling at the force of the blow, he was almost knocked from his feet, but held on.

Suddenly, as quickly as the first one came, a second arm struck him from behind. A second later, Roy found himself ten feet in the air, hitting the ground hard soon after. The Dark Knight coughed up blood, but his beholder spirit soon cured him, and Andrews entered the fight again. He charged at the demon, and his golden spear flashed with blue light as he slammed it into Zakum's fist. The hand gave way, disintegrating.

Gath managed to regain his footing just as Cade's sword decimated the final arm. Zakum had begun to crack, but still had some fight left. Fire burst forth in huge gouts fro the beast, and Gath had to dive for cover, shooting only when he thought the monolith couldn't hurt him,. Sparks sprayed over the ranger, but his defensive position would protect him.

However, a second later, it was no longer there. The rock he had hid behind was controlled by Zakum, turned into a golem. Running away, Gath managed to take a few shots, unable to land a fatal blow. The golem swung an arm at him, which the ranger blocked with a puppet. His nisrock protected him from the next series of blows, until he could shoot at close range, blasting the golem into bits.

A blast of fire ended his short reprieve. The ranger dived out of the way, but the flame caught his leg, setting his armor ablaze. Diving behind a boulder, he beat the flame out, before drenching his leg with a purple liquid. The wound healed before his eyes with the effects of the potion, and he scrambled to his feet, battling the demon once more.

As the melee warriors continued to batter away at the demon's defenses, it tried newer, and deadlier tactics. Instead of summoning golems, the stones lying about the cavern, began to fly through the air at incredible speeds. Gath dove to the ground, desperate to not be crushed by the stone hurricane. More experienced fighters held their ground. The melee warriors now formed a box, the strongest in the middle, fighting Zakum, while the weaker ones protected the attackers from the deadly storm. The continued assault caused Zakum to falter, the statue had little of its former self, cracked almost beyond recognition.

The enchantment that held the monolith together still held, but it wouldn't last.

"Mages, ready!" Cade called. Form the circle! All others, protect them!"

Moving with the skill of professionals, the entire party formed a circle around the mages, blocking any flying stones or golems that tried to hit the casters. The mages were performing circle magic, which could be incredibly powerful, but left them weak while casting.

Suddenly, as one, the casters raised their staffs, and their energy combined into one huge bolt, sent towards the statue.

Gath slammed his eyes shut as a blast of light flashed throughout the cavern. He saw white spots for minutes afterwards. When he could finally reopen his eyes, Zakum had been completely and utterly destroyed, leaving behind nothing more than a pile of stones. Already, these stones were being tallied and distributed evenly among the party.

The bowman stood the for a few moments, breathing heavily, trying to process what had just happened.

"So…what did you think?" Archie Lamont said, walking over to him.

"…Wow…" Gath began. "That was epic! It was crazy, so much happening at once."

"Yeah." Archie said with a laugh. "I remember my first time too. It's awesome."

"Yeah. I can't believe people do this every day…" He said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Well…people can be crazy. But wait till you see the money it brings in. There's an incredibly high demand for Zakum stones. They're worth about five thousand per pound." The sniper explained.

"Huh. Nice." Gath said. "What do they use them for?"

"Everything." Archie said, laughing. "Your nisrock probably has a few in it. They can hold a lot of mana at one time, so they're instrumental in creating powerful weapons. Of course, they need to be refined first, and you lose a lot of the stone doing that. You probably need at least a thousand pounds to create a solid item. There's a reason why powerful weapons are so expensive…"

Gath whistled. "Wow. I see what you mean."

"Hey Gath. Archie." Kristen said, walking over to them.

"Hey Kris." Gath said. "What did you think of that battle?" He asked.

"It was intense. I've never seen anything like it." She replied, although she seemed calm.

"Yeah, I agree with you there." Gath said. "What kind of spell did our wizards use at the end?" He asked.

"I don't know, I've never seen it before." Kristen replied.

"It's circle magic." Archie cut in. "The strongest mage is in the center of the circle. All the other mages send streams of pure mana to the leader. From what I hear, it's extremely hard to control that much mana, but we've had a lot of practice. It's only a six mage circle, so it's not that wild either. Anyway, the leader uses all of that pure mana to cast immensely powerful spells, like the one that blasted the demon out of that statue."

"Huh." Kristen said. "I've heard rumors of it, but never seen it in action. So, that's what a _small_ circle can do…"

"Well, yeah, but as you gather more mages, the willpower needed to control it grows rapidly. A six mage circle is fairly basic, but ten mage circles are nearly unheard of." Archie explained.

"So…what happens if the leader can't control that much power?" Gath inquired cautiously.

"Simple. It, quite literally, explodes. A huge wave of mana is sent out, decimating anything in its path. The circle bears the brunt of the blast, but it can still do a lot of damage. Almost always, every mage is killed. That's why most Zakum groups can change out their other members often, but the list of mages remains fairly static. Those guys need to trust each other." The sniper said.

"So you can't kill Zakum without circle magic?" Gath asked.

"No, you can't kill him even with it. The demon keeps coming back. Thankfully, it loses all memory of the time leading up to its death. That's why it tries the same tactics every time. It's kind of funny, if you think about it." Archie explained. "If you don't have a circle, you still need a mage to blast the spirit out. It just means you have to spend that much more time fighting the statue…and it gets that more deadly. We use circles to minimize the risk, and, as I said before, six mage circles are quite stable. There hasn't been an accident in decades."

"Good job, everyone!" Cade announced. "The stones will be divided up amongst you. All weapons will be given to whoever is highest on the list. Once you have received yours, your service to me is complete, and you are free to do whatever you want. Because of the war, I will not be available to lead farther excursions to El Nath. If you wish to return, talk to Archie Lamont. He's been working with me for a while now, and is one of the few who has no real connection to the WV military. Archie?" Cade said.

The sniper walked up to the platform Cade stood on. "Our next trip is planned for one week from today. Let me know if you're interested or able."

The sniper walked back over to Gath and Kristen.

"Wow. Zakum leader. Guess you took my advice after all!" Gath said, congratulating him.

"Thanks. Well, it's not as easy to organize as it looks. I have to deal with the Ludibrium and El Nath customs, and they certainly don't like me as well as Cade. I'm gonna have to go, start registering names, so…until next time." The sniper said, walking away.

"So, how long have you known him?" Kristen asked.

"Who? Oh, Archie. About…eighteen years. Since we were both five or six." Gath said.

"Wow. So you two are good friends?" She asked.

"Yeah, of course." Gath said.

At that moment, Cade came over and handed them their spoils. The stones were in magically enhanced bags that made the four-thousand pounds of stone seem like much less.

"Wow. Thanks." Gath said.

"Remember, this is your first time, so bring all of that to the Alcaster. He'll use some of it, the rest is yours to sell."

"Well, I have to go." Gath said. "Are you coming back next week?" He asked Kristen.

"I think so." She replied.

"Alright then. See you in a week." The ranger said.

* * *

"Kate and Lance…my friends, come join us." Cody said. "So, your diplomacy tactic has worked rather well. EV just signed a peace treaty with us, and the walls are rebuilt. And now…everything is in place for a counterattack." Cody said.

"Sounds good." Lance said. "And you want us to plan this counterattack?" He inquired.

"Far from it. It has already been planned, by every one of our commanders. You must choose which is the best." Cody explained.

"What? What are you talking about?" Kate asked.

"We want to identify good tactical planning among the ranks, so we've asked the commander of every division to submit a battle plan. You need to look at every selected one, and choose one, modifying it as necessary." He said. "The plans are on the table. Let me know when you've decided."

"…This is highly unorthodox…" Lance said.

"Just do it." Frazer said sharply. "I want to crush EV, and I want them crushed now. We can't let them think they can attack us whenever they want and then just sign a treaty and stay safe."

The Commander-in-Chief exited. Lance looked at Kate and shrugged, before examining the battle plans.

* * *

Gath Enders walked through the streets of El Nath, the snow crunching under his boots. With a shiver, he made his way into the Alcaster's house.

"Ah, Gath." The old man said. "Do you have the materials?"

"Yes." Gath said, handing him the bag.

"Very well. I will begin to construct the ring you requested. It will be finished in about a week. Can you return then?" He asked.

"Of course." Gath said. "I'll see you then."

* * *

"So, have you selected a suitable plan?" Cody Frazer asked, walking back into the war room, flanked by six elite guards.

"We have." Kate began. "This one, proposed by a Kurt Munro. It involves a lot of coordination, four major attacks at once, but it should succeed, because of the surprise and panic it will generate."

"Hmm. Munro. I've heard the name. Continue." Frazer said.

"Well, as you can see, _Operation Aliquam, _as he calls it, places two major forces close to Nautilus harbor. These can quickly take the port city. EV is dependent on trade with El Nath for the majority of their food. If we can take the port, we can break this supply line without going up against EVs navy. Your military isn't a match for EV in a straight up fight, but if you take Nautilus harbor, you can beat them in a war of attrition. The wastelands of Perion and Ellina forest are no place to grow crops. Give it a few months, and you can break the back of their people. A surrender would follow thereafter, winning the war for you." Lance explained.

"Hmmm. Are there any weaknesses?" Cody asked.

"Of course." Kate began. "It leaves the north fairly weak and unprotected. EVs military forces there could mobilize, break through Hettinger's Wall, and take the capital city of Lith."

"And if they take the capital, we lose." Cody said.

"Well, no." Kate continued. "The good part of this is that EV would have to move incredibly fast. They'd run out of stored food in a few months, and if the couldn't get more by then, they'd fall. Even if they have Lith, they would still have to create a supply line leading all the way to Ellina-and it takes nearly two months to cross the continent on foot. Besides, I'd expect some sort of 'resistance' would be set up even if this did happen, hurting their supply lines."

"Their other option would be to head for Henesys. They could reach it faster, and the land there would provide them with enough food to survive. However, a supply line there would be close to Nautilus harbor, which would make it dangerous."

"So…his plan leaves our cities wide open to attack…" Frazer began.

"True." Lance said. "But…this is EV we're talking about. They couldn't stay past Hettinger's wall after it was broken and they had a superior force. They're too cautious, they should have poured into the breaches and rampaged across WV. However, they didn't, and we can expect them to use the same caution. Hell, they think they're at peace, obviously the ruling faction just wants things to go back to the way they were before. EVs rulers aren't the type to shake things up, and they won't try an offensive in the north. Instead, they'll focus on retaking Nautilus harbor. You have the defensive position, if you can hold it…"

"Then we win." Cody said. "So, that's the plan, hope they don't attack the north?"

"Not entirely." Kate said. "We have many counterspies that can feed EV false information, planted earlier by the old HS."

"Gath sent counterspies in?" Cody asked suddenly.

"Yeah. He turned a fair amount of EV spies. We can use these to provide false information. EV will think the north is well-protected, and they'll make a move for Nautilus harbor." Lance finished.

"Hmmm. So, how much of Munro's plan did you change?" He inquired.

"Very little". Lance said. "I was impressed, this man could be a great commander."

"Thank you for you input. You've given WV a great service." Cody walked out.

"…That's it?" Lance said. "No more orders?"

"Lance…" Kate said softly.

He looked up, and suddenly noticed that the six guards were still in the room. A look of recognition flashed onto his face, but before he could move to draw his staff, a bowstring snapped forward, and four arrows slammed into his shoulder. The archmage found himself knocked to the floor by the impact. Kate quickly drew her sword and blocked an attack from another one of the guards.

Blue orbs appeared around each of the combatants as the duel began, but Kate soon found herself surrounded by four powerful warriors.

Lance rolled out of the way of two sprays of arrows before he could draw his staff. He sent a blast of fire at the nearest archer, who dodged it with ease.

Kate quickly rushed forward, pushing the lead warrior out of her way and attempting to move into the hall leading into the room. However, the door refused to budge, locked from the other side. She swore and spun around, barely blocking a slash. Suddenly, she felt a spear crash into her side, impaling her.

Eckhart scrambled to his feet and sent a huge wall of fire towards the two archers. While they were distracted, and summouned puppets to protect themselves, he sent a blast at the warrior closest to Kate. He was thrown into the air with the force of the blast, landing hard.

Kate felt her strength giving way, as she supported herself against the wall. The spearman attacked again and again, and she could barely knock the Flatizan aside, much less attack back. When the two other guards reached her and attacked her as well, she couldn't block the flurry of blows. Realizing there could be no surrender, she fought back with everything she had.

Seeing Kate in danger, Eckhart reacted, sending purple bolts towards her attackers. They hit, the fast acting poison paralyzing them. However, in recognition of the spell, he opened his mouth in shock and stumbled backwards.  
Kate wasted no time taking advantage of the situation. With swift movements, she stabbed all three of the paralyzed warriors, killing them. The fourth one, although wounded, got to his feet and charged her again.

The archers took advantage of Eckhart's surprise and he found his body filled with shafts. As Eckhart's vision began to fade, he regained his composure, and slammed his staff into the ground, creating an explosion of pure mana.

Knocked unconscious by the blast, both archers were out of the battle, but Eckhart soon slumped to the ground.

Filled with rage, Kate redoubled her efforts, and attacked again and again. Eventually, the final guards defense gave way, and a huge gash across his chest finished him.

The hero fell to her knees, the wound in her side bleeding profusely. Staying conscious through pure willpower, she grabbed a potion and soaked the wound with the liquid. The cut went deep into her, and would need time to heal, but the potion helped to block out the pain, so she could move.

Kate crawled over to Eckhart, soaking him in the same potion. Unfortuanately, he didn't reawaken. She went over to the fourth warrior and killed him, then did the same with both of the archers.

Stumbling over to Eckhart, the warrior lifted Eckhart over her shoulder. "Come on. I'm getting a feeling that we aren't welcome here." She quickly glanced around the room.

The door, as before, wouldn't budge. The entire room was made of stone, and well-lit by torches on the walls. However, there were no windows or other exits. Groaning, she stumbled over to the door, dumping Eckhart's body down. They'd have to come back to check on them after none of the assassins returned, and when that happened, they'd make their escape.

* * *

Kurt Munro stood in shock, reading the letter over and over again.

_Commander Munro,_

_You have been promoted to supreme commander of all WV forces. Your plan was chosen of the many submitted. The attack will proceed soon. Head to the Headquarters in Lith to receive further information._

_-Cody Frazer, CIC, WV army._

What incredible news! A few weeks ago, he had just been a spy, and now…now he controlled the entire military! He hadn't expected his plan to be that good, but apparently, it had been. He scrawled out a quick message to his second-in-command, naming Gath Enders as his replacement. He knew the ranger could handle the job.

* * *

Kate Lyynhall slowly got to her feet as she heard footsteps approaching. Her partner did the same.

The had been stuck in that room for hours. Eckhart had managed to recover to the point where he could walk, so she told him about her plan. She slowly drew her sword.

Suddenly, a man smashed through the door, startling her. He wore the uniform of the WV guard.

Eckhart shot a blast of fire at the guard, launching him into the air, but a dozen more rushed into the room, followed by Cody Frazer. They did not attack, but the pair found themselves in a corner, unable to get past the blades.

"Drop your weapons." One of the guards demanded.

Kate held on for a second, but then let them take her sword. Neither she nor Eckhart were in any condition to fight.

"…Six of my best guards. Killed, by a pair of you." Cody began. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You did lead our armies to victory, soulcrushers. However…I found that you have outlived your usefulness. And it's certainly not a good idea to leave anyone who knows your plans alive. So, I'm afraid you must die. Thank you, by the way, for the recommendation about Munro. He will make quite a good replacement, and besides, then I won't have to pay your…lucrative salaries. Her first, then the mage."

Held against the wall by two of the guards, she could do nothing to stop the third from holding a knife to her neck.

"Any last words?" The voice said.

"Yes." Kate replied. "Cody…you don't know what you're getting into. I can offer you information that can change the war. It can change everything."

"Alright then. Tell me!" Cody said, a smile on his face.

Kate almost spat in disgust that anyone could be so happy seconds before ordering someone killed, but managed to maintain her composure. If they could survive, Eckhart could contact Seneca, and he could free them. "…Sure. I'll start with the fact that El Nath and EV aren't exactly allies right now…" She said.

"Continue." Cody demanded.

"Well…Matthew Travis of EV figured out El Nath's plan. World Domination. That's why the attack a few weeks ago happened. Divided, he figured that El Nath could conquer Victoria easily, especially if they cut food shipments to EV. Then, only Ludibrium and a few smaller states stand between them and that goal." Kate said.

"…Remind me, how is this important?" Cody asked.

"Because they're going to succeed. Unless you take over EV before El Nath takes Orbis…it's over for all of Victoria."

"How do you know this, mercenary? Or are you not a mercenary at all?" Cody asked.

"No." She gritted her teeth. "I'm a plant. From Nath. We wanted to control the entire war in Victoria. To slow it down, so we could take the island. Lance and I were sent to turn the tide in your favor-without us, it would be over by now."

"Right…so why exactly should I let you two live?" He asked.

"I have contacts, in the EV military. I used them to cause EV to be deployed in the worst possible position before we struck. They're the reason you won, and pushed EV back from Hettinger's wall. And you'll need me to use those contacts again if you want to win the war." Kate finished.

"…Maybe. Maybe. Take everything they have, and lock them in the cells. I'll decide what to do with them later." Cody ordered, before walking out.

Eckhart let out a sigh of relief. Kate had saved them both…for now.


End file.
